Gun in fatal San Francisco shooting belonged to federal agent
Suspect who was deported multiple times pleads not guilty in fatal shooting of San Francisco woman
The gun used to fatally shoot a woman on the San Francisco Embarcadero belonged to a federal agent, sources confirmed Tuesday.
Kathryn Steinle, 32, was shot once in the back Wednesday while strolling on the tourist-friendly waterfront with her father. She died at a hospital a short time later.
Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez, 52, pleaded not guilty earlier Tuesday to a murder charge and was being held on $5 million bail. In an interview with KGO-TV, which first reported the gun’s connection to the federal agent, Lopez-Sanchez said he had found the weapon wrapped in a T-shirt on the ground near a bench, and that it had accidentally fired when he touched it.
But he also said he had taken strong sleeping pills and his memory was murky.
No additional details about the gun were available Tuesday. The district attorney’s office declined to comment.
The case against Lopez-Sanchez, a Mexican national who has been deported multiple times, has spurred outrage nationwide among critics of immigration policy.
San Francisco is among a number of counties and a handful of states that do not honor many requests by immigration authorities to hold inmates beyond their release date in order to hand them over for deportation. In this case, a request by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement that they be notified of his release date was disregarded.
He was released to the streets of San Francisco in April when 20-year-old charges against him were dismissed and was apparently homeless until the shooting.
In San Francisco Superior Court Tuesday, Lopez-Sanchez stood with slumped shoulders next to a Spanish-language interpreter and pleaded "no culpable," or not guilty, to the single murder charge with firearm enhancements.
Steinle's uncle, who declined to give his name, had paced in the hallway before the arraignment, appalled by the spectacle of so many chatting reporters and TV cameras.
"This isn't about immigration," he said. "This is about someone taking my niece's life."
Steinle had recently moved to San Francisco for a job from the East Bay suburb of Pleasanton. Her father "was just taking her out to dinner" when she was struck by a bullet in the back, her uncle said.
Lopez-Sanchez, 52, whom public defenders said Tuesday has only a second-grade education, participated in a rambling interview with KGO-TV over the weekend during which he admitted to firing a gun he said he had found wrapped in a T-shirt near a bench. But he said he did not remember much about the incident as he had taken strong sleeping pills.
Asked by Superior Court Judge Daniel Flores if he understood that he had waived his right to a preliminary hearing within 10 days he answered clearly, "Si senor." But when Flores later tried to explain to him that his attorneys said he did not need to be present at a legal hearing July 22, he seemed confused, repeatedly saying, "No soy culpable," or "I am not guilty."
Flores ordered him to be present at that hearing and at another July 27 to prepare for a preliminary hearing.
He is represented by San Francisco Public Defender Chief Atty. Matt Gonzalez, a former member of the Board of Supervisors; and Francisco Ugarte, who was hired by the office last summer in the unusual role of immigration specialist to handle criminal defense in cases involving potential deportation and other immigration matters.
San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi was also present in the courtroom.
Asst. Dist. Atty. Diana Garcia initially sought no bail for Lopez-Sanchez and then argued for a $10-million bail, saying the defendant "found the gun before firing it at close range and hitting the victim in the back."
Lopez-Sanchez is itinerant with no resources and can't post any bail amount, but Gonzalez argued that it should be lowered in the interest of due process.
"This is not a defendant with a history of violence," he said. "He comes before the court in what appears to be a case of a single shot fired."
He added that from the evidence available so far, "it's very likely this was an accidental shooting," that Lopez-Sanchez did not know Steinle and that the shooting did not occur during the commission of a crime such as a robbery or assault.
Flores set bail at $5 million.
Outside court, district attorney spokesman Alex Bastian tried to steer the conversation away from the immigration debate, saying, "Today is about Kate. It's about this incredible family that has shown such strength at this difficult time. It's about bringing them justice."
Bastian said his office believes the charge of murder "with malice aforethought" is justified by the evidence.
Gonzalez, Ugarte and Adachi also spoke before a bank of cameras, urging the public to withhold judgment until the facts are in.
"We can confirm that Mr. Sanchez did not know Ms. Steinle and had no reason to want her to be harmed in any way," Gonzalez said. He also sought to calm anti-immigrant fervor, noting also that immigrants in this country in general are "far less likely" to commit crimes than nonimmigrants.
Ugarte pointed out that Lopez-Sanchez has "no violent or serious criminal record." His multiple convictions are for felony and misdemeanor drug offenses and criminal reentry to the United States after being deported.
He had finished serving his sentence on one of those convictions in a Victorville facility in March when, rather than turn him over to ICE as requested, the Bureau of Prisons discovered a 20-year-old bench warrant on a case involving a $20 marijuana sale and brought him to San Francisco.
The city passed an ordinance in 2013 that bars the Sheriff's Department from holding inmates for ICE beyond their release date unless certain conditions are met. Lopez-Sanchex did not meet those but San Francisco Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi also confirmed on Tuesday that his department has not honored any immigration "detainer" requests from ICE in a year.
The case has spurred political backlash.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump was the first to lambaste the San Francisco County Sheriff's Department for its approach to immigration detainers.
San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee signed the 2013 city legislation that authorized the Sheriff's Department to honor the ICE detainer requests only in cases where an inmate has been convicted of a violent felony within the last seven years and has been currently held to answer by a magistrate on a similar charge.
Lopez-Sanchez did not meet those criteria.
But Lee on Monday called for a review of local and federal policies that led to the suspect's release.
On Tuesday, Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton weighed in, too, though she misstated the role that cities play in deportation. Federal immigration authorities ask local jails to hold certain immigrants until they can pick them up for possible deportation.
In an interview on CNN, saying "any city should listen to the Department of Homeland Security, which as I understand it, urged them to deport this man again after he got out of prison another time."
"Here's a case where we've deported, we've deported, we've deported. He ends back up in our country and I think the city made a mistake," Clinton said. "The city made a mistake, not to deport someone that the federal government strongly felt should be deported. So I have absolutely no support for a city that ignores the strong evidence that should be acted on."
U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) also called for a review of detention policies following Steinle's killing.
"For decades, I have supported deporting violent criminals, and I have always believed that sanctuary should not be given to felons," she said in a statement.
"I have reached out to Gov. Brown to ask whether state law was followed in this case, and if so, whether the law needs to be strengthened to ensure that a tragedy like this never happens again."
Brown signed into law California's Trust Act, which took effect in January 2014. Because of Lopez-Sanchez's felony conviction record, any local jurisdiction would have had the discretion to hold him for 48 hours for immigration officials who had lodged a detainer.
However, whether to do so remains up to the local jurisdictions, and San Francisco is among a number that have adopted policies more stringent than the Trust Act.
Twitter: @leeromney
Copyright © 2015, Los Angeles TimesUPDATES
5:02 p.m.: This post was updated with information that the gun belonged to a federal agent.
4:35 p.m.: This post was updated with comments from politicians.
This story was first posted at 4:33 p.m.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please leave a comment-- or suggestions, particularly of topics and places you'd like to see covered