Only in California: Kate Steinle’s illegal alien murderer wants his gun possession charge overturned

The illegal alien let off the hook for the murder of San Francisco resident Kate Steinle in 2015 now wants additional leniency: He wants his gun possession charge overturned because, well, it’s just not fair.

You may recall there was no small amount of outrage when jurors in the case ofÂ Jose Ines Garcia Zarate, who stood accused of shooting and killing Steinle, failed to convict him even of manslaughter charges but, because they are such gun haters in California, decided instead to convict him of illegally possessing a firearm.

The CBS station in San FranciscoÂ called the verdict â€œshocking.â€Â â€œStunning,â€ said theÂ San Francisco Chronicle.

Jim Steinle, Kateâ€™s father, who was with her when she was killed,Â said he was â€œsaddened and shocked,â€ the Chronicle reported. â€œJustice was rendered, but it was not served.â€

Now, Zarate is even seeking to have his gun conviction overturned.

Jurors believed Jose Ines Garcia Zarate “did not commit a willful act in firing the gun” and “that it went off accidentally just as the defense contended,” his lawyer Cliff Gardner said in a filing Friday with the First District Court of Appeal in San Francisco, the Chronicle noted in a report Tuesday.

Gardner also stated that Superior Court Judge Samuel Feng did not instruct the jury that “momentary possession” of a gun is not a crime, and as such, the jury had no option but convicting his client of illegal firearms possession by a previously convicted felon, the Chronicle added.

And of course, there is that part about Zarate, of Mexico, being a seven-time felon and in the United States illegally.

The paper noted further:

Gardner said the judge should have instructed the jury, as the defense requested, that Garcia Zarate was not guilty if he had possessed the gun “for a momentary or transitory period,” solely to dispose of it, and had not intended to prevent police from seizing it.

Feng rejected that instruction, citing evidence that Garcia Zarate had told a police officer he fired the gun. But Gardner said there was strong evidence that “he disposed of the firearm as soon as he learned what it was.”

Zarate remains in jail and is indeed facing deporation, as well as possible federal charges.

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