SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- 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 (@AP) - Judge says man at center of immigration debate will stand trial on murder charge in California.
— TheBlazeNOW (@TheBlazeNOW) September 4, 2015San 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 (STYN-lee) 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.
A large photo of Kathryn "Kate" Steinle who was killed by an illegal immigrant in San Francisco, is shown while her dad Jim Steinle testifies during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Capitol Hill, July 21, 2015 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
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.
In this July 7, 2015 file photo, Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez, right, is lead into the courtroom by San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi, left, and Assistant District Attorney Diana Garciaor, center, for his arraignment at the Hall of Justice in San Francisco. (Michael Macor/San Francisco Chronicle via AP, Pool, File)
San Francisco and other cities and counties across the state have enacted sanctuary policies of ignoring so-called detainer requests.
