Attorneys for Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez, the man charged with murder in the high profile death of Kate Steinle on San Francisco's Pier 14 this past July, have filed a motion requesting the charge of murder be dismissed. Lopez-Sanchez's defense says that the shooting was accidental, and thus the murder charge is inappropriate.
Lopez-Sanchez's Lawyer, Matt Gonzalez of the Public Defender's Officer, explained the reasoning behind the motion, which dates back to hearings earlier this year.
“We know it was a ricochet," KRON 4 reports him as saying of the bullet that killed Steinle. "That has been proven. There is no dispute about that.”
Gonzalez was presumably referring to August testimony by forensic science consultant James Norris, who according to KRON 4 said the gun fired by Lopez-Sanchez was “clearly aimed at the ground.”
“If you were trying to shoot somebody, this is not the way to shoot somebody,” Norris said in testimony reported by the Examiner. “It’s not going to fly true like it would have if it hadn’t struck something,”
The death of Steinle, a 31-year-old Pleasanton woman who was walking along the pier with her father at the time of the shooting, brought national attention to San Francisco's status as a sanctuary city and drew outrage ranging from Bill O'Reilly to the San Francisco Police Officers Association.
The court will hear Gonzalez's motion on January 29, with an update in the case scheduled for February 8.
