S.F. drug warrant helped accused killer stay in U.S.

San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi, (left) leads Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez, into the Hall of Justice in San Francisco, Calif. on Tues. July 7, 2015, for his arraignment on suspicion of murder in the shooting death of Kate Steinle on San FranciscoÕs Pier 14 last Wednesday. less San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi, (left) leads Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez, into the Hall of Justice in San Francisco, Calif. on Tues. July 7, 2015, for his arraignment on suspicion of murder in the ... more Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle Buy photo Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 54 Caption Close S.F. drug warrant helped accused killer stay in U.S. 1 / 54 Back to Gallery

A 20-year-old warrant over an alleged $20 marijuana deal in San Francisco turned into a ticket to freedom for Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez, the man charged Monday with murder in the shooting of a stranger who was walking on a waterfront pier.

Whether he should have gotten that ticket continued to fuel debate Monday in the aftermath of Wednesday’s slaying of Kathryn Steinle on Pier 14 along the Embarcadero.

Lopez-Sanchez, whose age is listed as 45 by police and 52 in jail records, is a convicted felon with a long history of drug crimes who has spent about half his adult life serving time for illegally entering the country and has been deported five times to Mexico, according to records reviewed by The Chronicle.

Lopez-Sanchez was on his way to a sixth deportation earlier this year, records show. But something changed: He got sent to San Francisco.

After serving 46 months at a lockup in Victorville (San Bernardino County) for felony re-entry into the country, Lopez-Sanchez was sent to San Francisco in March by the federal Bureau of Prisons rather than being transferred into U.S. immigration custody.

The old marijuana warrant, officials said, took precedence over the civil immigration case.

Upon his return to San Francisco, immigration officials asked that he be held for deportation after the city got through with him. But after his case was discharged by city prosecutors on March 27, the day of his arraignment, he was released by the Sheriff’s Department — which runs the jails — on April 15.

Sanctuary policy

The immigration hold was not honored. Less than three months later, Steinle was dead.

The legality and prudence of that release — made under San Francisco’s sanctuary policy for immigrants in the country illegally, which states that the city should not assist in federal immigration enforcement — continued to be a subject of fierce debate Monday.

Mayor Ed Lee distanced himself from the release, saying in a statement that “San Francisco’s Sanctuary City policy protects residents regardless of immigration status and is not intended to protect repeat, serious and violent felons. Our city’s policy helps immigrant and limited-English speaking communities where sometimes people fear and mistrust the criminal justice system.”

Lee called for an investigation into what happened by all of the local and federal agencies involved, saying, “I am concerned about the circumstances that led to the release of Mr. Sanchez.”

However, Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi said his agency had no choice but to release Lopez-Sanchez under an October 2013 city ordinance — one signed by the mayor.

It states that law enforcement officials “shall not detain an individual on the basis of a civil immigration detainer after that individual becomes eligible for release,” except under a very strict exception.

Under the exception, the city can hold an inmate for immigration authorities if the person has been convicted of a violent felony in the past seven years and is in custody on a pending violent felony. There is no indication that Lopez-Sanchez would have qualified for either provision.

Holds viewed as requests

City records obtained by The Chronicle show Mirkarimi later went further than the ordinance. On March 9 — two weeks before Sanchez was sent to San Francisco — the sheriff issued an order to his staff banning all holds of inmates for federal immigration authorities.

“The San Francisco Sheriff’s Department ICE detainer policy is that ICE Immigration Detainers ... shall not be booked or honored,” Mirkarimi’s memo said. He shifted from his earlier policies, which allowed detainers in certain serious cases.

“There shall be no detention for or release to ICE authorities on any other grounds,” Mirkarimi said, including “a prior order of removal, deportation or exclusion” and “an oral or telephonic request from ICE,” unless his legal staff was consulted and the sheriff authorized the action.

Freya Horne, an attorney with the Sheriff’s Department, said Monday that if federal authorities wanted Sanchez held, they should have obtained a court order. Absent that, she said, the city’s ordinance dictated his release, because immigration holds are considered requests, not legally binding orders.

“Without a legal basis to hold a person, we cannot hold them on a voluntary request to detain,” she said.

Several drug arrests

Virginia Kice, a spokeswoman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said Monday that obtaining such orders — on top of existing deportation orders — would not be workable.

“We deported 177,000 people last year,” she said. “The whole system would collapse.”

Such immigration holds have been controversial for years, with several California counties refusing to honor them in many cases. The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees immigration, recently changed its policy and now is asking to take custody only of more serious criminals from local jurisdictions.

According to records, Lopez-Sanchez began his foray through the justice system with a 1991 arrest in Arizona on a charge of “inhaling toxic vapors.” Since then, he has been arrested on drug charges in Washington, Oregon, California and Arizona, records show.

In five cases, he was deported but sneaked back into the country — only to be locked up for coming back. Since 1994, Lopez-Sanchez has spent about 15 years in federal prison for illegally entering the country.

In the old marijuana case, San Francisco officers who initiated a $20 street buy in December 1995 arrested Lopez-Sanchez for one count of possession for sale, and a separate count of possessing more than 28 grams of pot. But when he failed to show for his court appearance, a judge issued a $5,000 bench warrant for his arrest.

Opening fire

After finally facing that warrant this year, Lopez-Sanchez was released April 15 — and apparently remained in San Francisco. At about 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, police said, he opened fire on the waterfront, fatally wounding Steinle. He was arrested a short while later while allegedly hiding about a mile south of the scene.

Lopez-Sanchez, who did not know Steinle, appeared to admit to the killing in a jailhouse interview with KGO-TV on Sunday. But his account of the events was unclear, and much of the interview was done in English rather than his native Spanish.

He said he had found the gun wrapped in a shirt and had fired it either by accident or at sea lions, and had then kicked it into San Francisco Bay. Police later recovered a gun, according to a source familiar with the investigation.

Lopez-Sanchez is scheduled to be arraigned on the murder charge Tuesday afternoon. Again, federal immigration authorities have asked that he be held for deportation if he is released from San Francisco jail.

Evan Sernoffsky, Vivian Ho and Jaxon Van Derbeken are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. E-mail: esernoffsky@sfchronicle.com, vho@sfchronicle.com, jvanderbeken@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @EvanSernoffsky, @VivianHo, @jvanderbeken