Article snippet: A Mexican man acquitted of murder in the shooting death of a San Francisco woman that sparked a national immigration debate was sentenced Friday to time served for illegal gun possession. San Francisco Superior Court Judge Samuel Feng also denied a defense request to grant Jose Ines Garcia Zarate a new trial for his conviction of being a felon in possession of a firearm. Garcia Zarate will now be taken into U.S. custody to face two federal gun possession charges. The San Francisco Sheriff's Department said it would hold Garcia Zarate in jail until U.S. marshals pick him up. His lawyer, Tony Serra, said he expects the transfer this weekend. Serra also said he plans to inject politics as much as he can into his defense of Garcia Zarate in federal court. That would be a marked departure from the state case, in which the judge banned any mention of Garcia Zarate's immigration status and the nationwide debate around it. Garcia Zarate had previously been convicted of illegally re-entering the United States and been deported five times before Kate Steinle was fatally shot on a popular pier in July 2015. The San Francisco sheriff's department released him from jail several weeks before the shooting, ignoring a federal request to detain him for a sixth deportation. San Francisco's "sanctuary city" policy bars local officials from helping U.S. immigration authorities in deportation matters unless they have a warrant. During the Mexican border and tighten immigration ... Link to the full article to read more