Defendant refuses evaluation, delaying federal gun possession trial

The Mexican acquitted of murder in the 2015 shooting of San Francisco resident Kate Steinle refused to participate in a competency evaluation Monday, further delaying his trial on federal gun possession charges.

U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria vacated the trial indefinitely until Jose Ines Garcia-Zarate submits to the evaluation.

After personally speaking to Garcia-Zarate without federal prosecutors, Chhabria ruled on Friday he has remaining "doubts about his competency" and ordered an assessment.

"It appears that Garcia-Zarate may not understand the charges against him, and it's possible that he's not currently taking any medication for his apparent mental illness," Chabbria wrote in a Jan. 10 order.

A mental health professional was scheduled to assess Garcia-Zarate's competency Monday and provide a report. The defendant has previously been diagnosed with schizophrenia.

The trial was scheduled to start Friday if concerns were alleviated about Garcia-Zarate's fitness to stand trial. If not, Chhabria said he would delay the trial indefinitely to conduct a full evidentiary hearing about his competency.

Concerns about Garcia-Zarate's competency were compounded when he admitted at a November arraignment that a gun was in his pants pocket, which prosecutors argued should be allowed as evidence.

Chhabria said it was more likely the defendant was repeating accusations against him. U.S. v. Garcia-Zarate, 17-CR609 (N.D. Cal., filed Dec. 5, 2017).

Garcia-Zarate's answers in a police interrogation, media interviews and his most recent arraignment were "sometimes nonsensical," Chhabria wrote, adding that the defendant gives "definitive 'yes' or 'no' answers to questions he does not seem to understand." Garcia Zarate was cleared of murdering Steinle by a San Francisco Superior Court jury in 2017. He faces up to 20 years in prison on two gun possession charges after a federal grand jury indicted him following the state court trial.

Chhabria will consider the issue at a hearing Wednesday.

-- Winston Cho