Kate Steinle murder trial: Defense brings in video enhancement expert

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- The attorneys for Jose Ines Garcia Zarate believe a picture is worth a thousand words.

An expert in video enhancement testified today that he was able to produce clearer photo stills of the scene at Pier 14 before and after Kate Steinle was shot.

Paul Hiromi Endo was given the original surveillance video of Pier 14, taken from the fireboat station on Pier 22 1/2. Because there is quite a distance between the two piers, approximately one mile, it's hard to make out who is in the original video.

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Endo told the jury he used a number of enhancement-type computer programs that helped him zoom in, allowing him to see the people in greater detail. In his enhanced stills, he was able to make out Garcia Zarate sitting in a swivel chair and Steinle and her father walking on the pier.

Garcia Zarate was about 90 feet from the Steinles.

But court was interrupted when the expert in video enhancement was asked to produce pictures of a group of people sitting in the same third swivel chair, about an hour before Garcia Zarate arrived.

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The assistant district attorney asked the judge to not show those pictures to the jury, even though the images were shared in opening arguments.

The defense has suggested that anyone from the group could have left behind the gun, later picked up by Garcia Zarate. But the lead investigator in the case, Lt. Anthony Ravano, testified earlier that there are a lot of people on the pier at any given time.

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