SAN FRANCISCO – A judge has ruled that a man at the center of the national immigration debate will stand trial on a murder charge in the shooting death of a young San Francisco woman.
San Francisco Judge Brendan Conroy made the decision Friday after a preliminary hearing.
Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez is charged with first-degree murder in the shooting death of 32-year-old Kate Steinle on July 1. Steinle was shot in the back as she walked with her father along the waterfront.
Lopez-Sanchez, a 45-year-old Mexican national, acknowledged shooting Steinle but said the gun he claimed to have found fired accidentally.
The shooting triggered a national debate over immigration after it was revealed that the Sheriff's Department had released Lopez-Sanchez despite a federal request to detain him for possible deportation.
Lopez-Sanchez was previously deported five times.
San Francisco and other cities and counties across the state have enacted sanctuary policies of ignoring so-called detainer requests.
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