The man acquitted in the 2015 shooting of Kate Steinle on a San Francisco pier pleaded guilty to gun charges in federal court, nearly seven years after the 32-year-old’s death fueled a fiery debate about immigration and border control in the U.S.
Jose Inez Garcia-Zarate pleaded guilty on Monday to being a felon in possession of a firearm and to being an alien unlawfully present in the country in possession of a firearm, officials said.
Garcia-Zarate, an undocumented immigrant from Mexico, had been deported several times before he gunned down Steinle on July 1, 2015. She was strolling along Pier 14 of the Embarcadero with friends and family when she was struck in the back by gunfire after 6 p.m.
