The seven-time felon, five-time deported illegal alien acquitted for 32-year-old Kate Steinle’s murder in 2017 will not stand trial on federal gun charges after a California court has deemed him mentally ill.

Following Steinle’s 2015 killing on a pier in San Francisco, illegal alien Jose Garcia Zarate was charged with her murder after being caught on surveillance footage running from the shooting. After his arrest, Zarate admitted to shooting and killing Steinle, who was walking on the pier at the time with her father, saying he chose San Francisco because it was a sanctuary city that shields criminal illegal aliens from arrest and deportation by federal immigration officials.

Now, after his acquittal of Steinle’s murder, Zarate is facing federal criminal charges for illegal possession of a firearm. Zarate has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Records from last week reveal that a California court is declaring Zarate mentally ill and thus unable to stand trial for the charges, as FOX 5 San Diego reported:

A court evaluator concluded Jose Ines Garcia Zarate is not competent to stand trial on federal gun charges “because of a mental illness that is not presently being treated,” according to a court document from the US District Court in California. [Emphasis added] … “If neither side disputes the evaluator’s conclusion, the Court wishes to explore … what efforts should be made locally to restore the defendant to competency through proper medication, as opposed to sending the defendant to a federal facility outside California,” according to court documents dated February 14. [Emphasis added]

The defense and prosecution are set to meet this week to discuss the matter.

Illegal aliens facing trial, as Breitbart News has chronicled, increasingly have used the defense of being insane, mentally ill, and mentally disabled to escape maximum sentences for murder.

In the case of illegal alien Wilbur Ernesto Martinez-Guzman — accused of murdering four Americans in Reno, Nevada — the defense is expected to claim that Martinez-Guzman is “mentally disabled” to avoid the death penalty if he is convicted.

Likewise, the 34-year-old illegal alien Apolinar Altamirano, an alleged self-proclaimed member of the Sinaloa Cartel, accused of murdering 21-year-old gas station clerk Grant Ronnenbeck in cold blood in January 2015, will not be eligible for the death penalty after he successfully got himself declared “intellectually disabled.”

John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.