SAN FRANCISCO (CN) — An undocumented immigrant cleared of murder in the 2015 shooting death of Kate Steinle is close to reaching a plea deal on federal gun possession charges, but his behavior during a hearing Monday could delay the guilty plea indefinitely.
Jose Inez Garcia-Zarate has been held in jails and prison hospitals for the last six years following his arrest for the July 5, 2015, shooting death of Steinle on a San Francisco pier. Garcia-Zarate said the shooting was accidental, and a state court jury acquitted him of murder charges in 2017. After the acquittal, federal prosecutors charged him with two counts of illegal gun possession, for which he faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.
Garcia-Zarate previously pleaded not guilty and was about to take the case to trial in January 2020, but his plea was essentially rescinded after U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria ordered him to undergo a mental health evaluation and later found him unfit stand trial.
During a virtual hearing Monday, Garcia-Zarate insisted that he wants to enter his plea without further delay.
“I want to plead guilty now,” Garcia-Zarate said through a Spanish interpreter. “It’s been many years now.”
His attorney, Maria Belyi, explained that she intended for her client to plead not guilty at Monday’s hearing. She said the plan was for him to change his plea after a deal currently being negotiated with prosecutors is finalized. Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin Barry said that deal contemplates having Garcia-Zarate plead guilty to one of the two illegal gun possession charges filed against him, something that Garcia-Zarate alluded to earlier in the hearing.
"He knows what the parameters [of the deal] are," Barry said.
Despite the ongoing negotiations, Garcia-Zarate repeatedly told the judge that he wants to plead guilty immediately.
“It sounds like your client is unwilling to plead not guilty for the purposes of this arraignment,” Judge Chhabria told the defendant's lawyer.
Garcia-Zarate uttered multiple rambling and inconsistent statements throughout the hearing, at one point saying, “I want to give them the person who shot the girl.” He told his interpreter, “You’re just my employee. You are throwing all of my people under the bus.”
“You’re my interpreter,” Garcia-Zarate said in one of his outbursts. “Say the truth. Even if it hurts. Even if it makes you cry. Even if it makes you cry a lot. Because one of your people got killed, an American woman.”
The defendant also said, “I want to go to the hospital. I think that’s what best.”
Garcia-Zarate spent months undergoing mental health treatment at a Federal Bureau of Prisons facility after he was found incompetent to stand trial in October 2020. Two mental health professionals testified that he has schizophrenia with symptoms including delusions, visual and auditory hallucinations and disorganized speech and behavior.
During a 2020 competency hearing, Garcia-Zarate tried to fire his other lawyer, Tony Serra. A psychiatrist who evaluated him said the defendant believed his lawyer was taking bribes from police and working against him, a paranoid belief indictive of schizophrenia.
On Monday, Garcia-Zarate interrupted his lawyer multiple times as she tried to talk to the judge about scheduling a new hearing date for her client to plead guilty after a plea agreement is finalized. The judge warned the defendant to stop disrupting their discussion.
“You need to remain silent right now because you keep interrupting my conversation with the lawyers,” Judge Chhabria said. “Frankly Mr. Garcia-Zarate, it’s making me concerned about your competency in this hearing. If you don’t understand what’s going on and you don’t have the competence, then you’re not allowed to plead guilty.”
After multiple outbursts, Judge Chhabria ordered Garcia-Zarate’s Spanish interpreter to stop translating his words.
The judge said he would need to think about whether to move forward with an arraignment given Garcia-Zarate’s behavior during the hearing.
“We’re going to reschedule this matter, but I’m going to think about it further,” Chhabria said. “I’m going to think about whether Mr. Garcia-Zarate needs to be reevaluated for competency.”
During his murder trial for the 2015 pier shooting, Garcia-Zarate’s public defenders said the shooting was accidental and that a gun went off accidentally after he found it wrapped in a rag beneath a bench. The bullet ricocheted off a concrete walkway before hitting Steinle in the back.
Steinle’s death became a rallying cry for supporters of tougher immigration enforcement, including then-presidential candidate Donald Trump, who cited the young woman’s death during his 2016 Republican National Convention speech.
Less than a week after the murder acquittal, prosecutors filed federal gun possession charges against Garcia-Zarate.
Garcia-Zarate’s lawyer Serra argued in 2018 that the prosecution was politically motivated, but Chhabria refused to let the defense team pursue a vindictive prosecution theory based on a lack of evidence.
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