The jury hearing the case of an Arizona rancher accused of killing an unarmed migrant could not reach a verdict, resulting in the judge declaring a mistrial.
George Alan Kelly was charged with second-degree murder in the shooting death of Mexican national Gabriel Cuen-Buitimea on his ranch in January 2023, per Fox News.
Deliberations started on April 18. The judge declared a mistrial after jurors failed to reach a verdict.
Cuen-Buitimea was found dead on a 170-acre cattle ranch owned by Kelly located near Keno Springs outside Nogales.
Kelly’s defense raised allegations that Cuen-Buitimea was there for untoward reasons, per the outlet.
“Long story short, this is simply not somebody who’s looking for the American dream. There’s no evidence that this person is here for those kinds of benign purposes,” Kelly’s defense attorney, Brenna Larkin, said in her closing argument. “And we bring that up, not, you know, to be judgmental about Gabriel or to not have compassion for him. But when people are involved in a criminal lifestyle, it’s dangerous. It’s more inherently dangerous than simply being a migrant who’s coming here. So it’s relevant for that reason.”
Records indicate Cuen-Buitimea illegally entered the country many times, Fox News reported.
According to the defense, Kelly fired warning shots from his patio. His wife, Wanda Kelly, testified they saw two armed men dressed in camouflage about 100 feet from their residence. She called Border Patrol ranch liaison; agents responded, but to no avail.
Border Patrol was called later when Cuen-Buitimea’s body was found.
The defense offered a theory that a gang of bandits, possibly with connections to a cartel, robbed and killed the victim.
Santa Cruz County Sheriff David Hathaway came under scrutiny when an online video surfaced of him saying Kelly wanted to “go hunt me some Mexicans,” Fox News reported.
“You told Big Super, ‘We caught this rancher shooting at migrants’ and then you said that ‘there are people who want to come hunt some Mexicans’ — you made that statement?” a defense attorney asked Hathaway.
Big Super is a real estate YouTube personality who’s had a video of Hathaway as Big Super toured the borderlands neighborhood.
“Yeah I did,’ Hathway said. “I just did a colloquial, ‘There are some people that want to go hunt them some Mexicans.’ Yeah I did make that statement.”
Prosecutor Mike Jette said there was no way to justify what Kelly did by shooting at “two unarmed men walking two fences away” and “pulling out your AK-47, stepping on the patio, no verbal warning and shooting nine times,” per the outlet.
“He escalates the situation. His wife is fine,” Jette said in his closing argument..”You do not have the right to use deadly physical force to protect a person who didn’t need protecting. You don’t have the right to use deadly force when there is no threat to home or yard, and you don’t have the right to initiate, instigate or escalate with deadly force. No right whatsoever.”
Kelly was helped by the kindness of others in helping to raise money for the bond, the Independent Journal Review reported previously.
A campaign was started on the Christian donation site GiveSendGo to raise money of Kelly.
Kelly rejected a deal that reduced his charge to one count of negligent homicide if he pleaded guilty, Fox News reported.
from prosecutors earlier this year that would have reduced the charge to one count of negligent homicide if he would agree to plead guilty.
