ANAHEIM, Calif. — This was so close to feeling so...

La Milagrosa bar on Havemeyer Street in Brooklyn, the area where Jose Zambrano was assaulted.

Last Christmas, Jose Zambrano Rodriguez surprised his little sister with a spontaneous road trip to Miami.

“He just called me and said, ‘Let’s go to Florida. Let’s just rent a car and drive,’” Pamela Zambrano Gomez, 21, told The Post. “We surprised my dad. We had so much fun.”

This year, an empty table setting will replace the bright, young video-game entrepreneur’s spot at the family table.

The ambitious 26-year-old Brooklynite — who was featured in Variety magazine for his work as a game developer — was mortally injured outside a Brooklyn bar, days before Thanksgiving, because he refused a thug’s request for a cigarette, police said. He died four days later in Bellevue Hospital.

Yet Joshua Hernandez — the reputed Latin Kings gang member who cops say delivered a fatal punch to Rodriguez’s skull — won’t spend Christmas behind bars. The 25-year-old is out on $20,000 bail for a misdemeanor assault charge in the Nov. 17 attack on a Williamsburg sidewalk.

His victim’s family will spend the holiday season fighting for justice.

“My son is dead. That is a fact. And the man who murdered him is out on bail,” José Zambrano said. “What frightens me the most is the possibility of the system making him go to prison only a year, because of New York’s license to kill, based on a ‘one punch law.’”

Legal experts say that even if the alleged punch led to Rodriguez’ death, upgrading the assault charge to manslaughter would depend on the very difficult proposition of proving there was an intent to kill.

“Just because the result is something horrific and tragic, doesn’t mean you intended that outcome,” said criminal defense attorney and former Manhattan prosecutor Jeremy Saland.

Rodriguez was hanging out at Mezcaleria La Milagrosa in Williamsburg in the hours before his meeting with Hernandez, which happened a block south of the bar on Havemeyer Street around 4:30 a.m.

Hernandez and two friends approached Rodriguez and his female pal asking for a cigarette, according to a police report obtained by The Post. When they said they didn’t have one, both groups went their separate ways.

Minutes later, Hernandez’s companions circled back and began taunting Rodriguez and his companion, the pal told Gomez. She said Hernandez approached from behind.

“She just saw an arm [swing], and my brother’s eyes open,” Gomez said. “She told me, ‘I’ve never seen a human fall that way.’ We found out his whole entire head was fractured when he hit the ground.”

Hundreds attended Rodriguez’s Nov. 27 funeral. But the family’s solace was shattered when they learned Hernandez — who has prior arrests for assaulting a police officer and assault with intent to cause disfigurement, according to police — was already free following his arrest the night of the incident.

Many families of “one-punch killing” victims have agonized over the paltry punishments given to their loved ones’ assailants.

Gaelic football player Danny McGee died from a single blow outside a Queens bar almost a year to the day before Rodriguez was attacked.

Steven O’Brien pleaded guilty to third-degree misdemeanor assault on Nov. 21, the day Rodriguez died. He was sentenced to six months in jail.

The case prompted the Queens District Attorney’s office to call for harsher punishments for one-punch killings.

“We believe that is an inadequate response by society to a death,” said Acting DA John Ryan. “We call upon the Legislature to pass a law making an intentional assault that results in death a felony.”

The Brooklyn prosecutor’s office declined to comment on Hernandez’s case. Hernandez and his attorney could not be reached for comment.