The seven-time felon, five-time deported illegal alien acquitted for 32-year-old Kate Steinle’s murder in 2017 may undergo a mental health evaluation before facing federal gun charges, a judge suggested this week.

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.

On Wednesday, Oakland, California, U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria suggested that Zarate undergo mental health evaluation to decide whether the illegal alien can stand trial for two federal gun charges against him, according to the San Francisco Examiner.

As Breitbart News reported, Chhabria has delayed the federal trial because Zarate has been deemed mentally ill and thus unfit to stand trial as of right now. Previously, Zarate was diagnosed with schizophrenia.

Prosecutors and Zarate’s defense team agreed that the illegal alien should spend at least 45 days at the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) facility in either Los Angeles, San Diego, or Seattle to determine whether he can be medically rehabilitated.

The mental health evaluation at any one of the three BOP facilities would be funded through American taxpayer money. The BOP is mandated to provide basic medical and mental health care to inmates with its annual $7 billion budget.

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