SAN FRANCISCO – The Latest on murder trial involving San Francisco pier shooting (all times local):
3:30 p.m.
The defense attorney for a Mexican national accused of fatally shooting a woman on a San Francisco pier says his client didn't realize he had picked up a handgun when it fired.
Attorney Matt Gonzalez made the claim Monday during his opening statement at the trial of Jose Ines Garcia Zarate in the 2015 shooting that touched off a national debate on illegal immigration.
Garcia Zarate has said the shooting of 32-year-old Kate Steinle was accidental and that he was handling a handgun he found wrapped in a T-shirt under a bench on the pier when it accidentally fired.
Gonzalez told jurors the gun, which had been stolen from the car of a law enforcement officer, is dangerous because it doesn't have a safety and has a hair trigger.
The 54-year-old defendant had been deported five times.
During his campaign President Donald Trump cited the shooting as a reason to toughen U.S. immigration policies.
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12 p.m.
Opening statements have started in the trial of a Mexican man accused of fatally shooting a woman on a San Francisco pier two years ago. The case set off a national immigration debate during last year's presidential race.
Prosecutor Diana Garcia showed the jury the gun that killed Kate Steinle and said she was shot on purpose.
Garcia also told the jury Monday that a ballistics expert will testify that the gun would not have gone off accidentally, as the suspect has claimed.
Fifty-four-year-old Jose Ines Garcia Zarate has acknowledged shooting Steinle in the back while she was walking with her father on the downtown San Francisco pier on July 1, 2015.
Garcia Zarate had been deported five times and was homeless in San Francisco when he shot Steinle.
Garcia Zarate has said he found the handgun under a bench and it accidentally fired.
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10:35 a.m.
The attorney for a Mexican man accused of fatally shooting a woman on a San Francisco pier says his client is not criminally responsible because he did not know that the object he had in his hand was a gun.
Attorney Matt Gonzalez made the comments outside court before the start of Monday's trial of a case that set off a national immigration debate.
Fifty-four-year-old Jose Ines Garcia Zarate has acknowledged shooting Kate Steinle in the back while she was walking with her father on the downtown San Francisco pier on July 1, 2015.
Garcia Zarate has said he found the handgun under a bench and it accidentally fired.
Court spokeswoman Ann Donovan says four members of Steinle's family were expected to attend opening statements in Zarate's trial.
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12:05 a.m.
A trial begins this week for a Mexican man who set off a national immigration debate after he fatally shot a woman on a popular San Francisco pier two years ago.
Fifty-four-year-old Jose Ines Garcia Zarate has acknowledged shooting Kate Steinle in the back while she was walking with her father on the downtown pier on July 1, 2015.
But Zarate says the shooting was accidental.
Zarate told police he was handling a handgun he found under a bench on the pier when it accidentally fired.
The handgun belonged to a Bureau of Land Management ranger who reported that it was stolen from his parked car in San Francisco a week before Steinle was shot.
Zarate is charged with second-degree murder, which carries a sentence of 15 years to life in prison.
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