Judge declares annulment in case of Arizona farmer accused of killing Mexican national on border property

A jury was unable to reach a verdict in the case of Arizona rancher George Alan Kelly, who was charged with manslaughter in connection with the death of a Mexican national found shot to death on his border area ranch in January 2023.

The jury began deliberating on April 18. After days of being unable to reach a verdict, the judge overseeing the trial declared a mistrial on Monday.

The case centered on the death of Mexican national Gabriel Cuen-Buitimea, who was found shot to death on Kelly’s 170-acre cattle ranch near Keno Springs outside Nogales, Arizona, on January 30, 2023.

Kelly’s defense has countered the prosecution’s argument that Cuen-Buitimea was an unarmed migrant and has suggested that cartel influence hampered the investigation into the death.

“Long story short, this is just not someone looking for the American dream. There is no evidence that this person is here for this type of benign purpose,” Kelly’s attorney, Brenna Larkin, said during her closing arguments on Thursday. “And we bring that up not to condemn Gabriel or to have no compassion for him. But when people are involved in a criminal lifestyle, it is dangerous. It is inherently more dangerous than simply being a migrant coming here. That’s why it’s relevant.”

Cuen-Buitimea had entered the country illegally several times and was only deported in 2016.

Over the course of weeks, jurors heard testimony about where and at what distance Kelly was standing when prosecutors alleged he fatally shot Cuen-Buitimea, as well as the motivation for the gunshots.

The defense maintained that Kelly had only fired warning shots into the air from his patio earlier in the day, and his wife, Wanda Kelly, testified about calling their Border Patrol ranch contact when they saw two armed men, dressed in camouflage, with rifles and backpacks walking around 100 yards. meters from their house. Law enforcement responded to the property and hours passed before Kelly called Border Patrol again to report she had found the body.

The fatal bullet was never recovered at the scene.

A criminologist who works pro bono as a consultant for Kelly’s defense, Dr. Ron Martinelli, previously told Fox News Digital that none of the state’s witnesses in the trial had provided any rebuttal to the defense theory that a rip crew — a gang of bandits, sometimes affiliated with a cartel — could have fatally shot and robbed Cuen-Buitimea .

Santa Cruz County Sheriff David Hathaway was pressed by the defense about an online video in which he speculated that Kelly wanted to “hunt some Mexicans on me.”

“You told Big Super, ‘We caught this rancher shooting at migrants’ and then you said ‘there are people who want to come and hunt Mexicans’ – did you make that statement?” an attorney asked Hathaway on Wednesday. Big Super is the name of the real estate YouTube personality whose video featured Hathaway during a tour of his border region.

“Yes, I did,” Hathway replied. “I just made an informal speech: ‘There are some people who want to hunt those Mexicans.’ Yes, I made that statement.”

Martinelli also alleged to Fox News Digital that Hathaway violated U.S. State Department protocol and Mexican law by arranging an unauthorized meeting to interview Daniel Ramirez in Nogales, Mexico, weeks after the shooting.

The prosecutor argued that Ramirez was the only witness to Cuen-Buitimea’s death and then fled across the border.

Ramirez testified that he had transported drugs across the border before, but not on the day of the shooting in January 2023.

The defense argued that based on Ramirez’s own testimony, it appeared he was not even present that day. The jury was able to take a field trip to Kelly’s ranch to obtain the land.

“The only conclusion that can be drawn from Daniel’s description of this property is that he was not there,” Larkin said. “You cannot find Mr. Kelly guilty of aggravated assault against Daniel because Daniel was not there. And you can’t find him guilty of any offense, including murder in the second degree or less, because they haven’t proven that Alan shot this person, and they have to prove it.

Larkin told jurors that Kelly was confronted with “a threat to his life” and “had a gun pointed at him,” meaning he would have been justified in using deadly physical force.

Still, the rancher “did not use deadly physical force,” Larkin said in her closing argument. “He fired shots into the air, above the tree, where these people were, to get the threat to stop.”

“The law doesn’t say you can’t use less force to defend yourself. The law doesn’t say that if you’re in the middle of nowhere and you guys were there. This is not downtown Nogales. This is not a populated area. This is isolated. It’s empty,” Larkin told the jury. “He can fire warning shots to protect himself and his wife. And that’s exactly what he did. That is exactly what any man who cares about his wife and his home should do in this situation when faced with the threat he faced.

In the state’s closing argument, prosecutor Mike Jette insisted to the jury that there is “no justification” for Kelly “seeing two unarmed men walking two fences away” and “pulling out your AK-47, stepping onto the patio , no verbal warning and nine shots.”

“He escalates the situation. His wife is doing well,” Jette said on Thursday. “You have no right to use deadly physical force to protect someone who didn’t need protection. You do not have the right to use deadly force absent a threat to your home or yard, and you do not have the right to initiate, incite, or escalate the use of deadly force. No rights whatsoever.”

“Gabriel and Daniel were shot at. Gabriel is dead, killed by a powerful weapon, an AK-47. Entry wound, exit wound in line with suspect’s property,” the prosecutor said. “Steps outside, no verbal warning. The suspect shot nine times with his AK. Shell casings prove it. Ejection pattern proves where he was. The position and orientation of Gabriel’s body prove where the shot came from.”

Jette concluded by telling the jury that if they are not convinced of the murder charge, they can still convict Kelly on the lesser charges of manslaughter, negligent homicide or aggravated assault.

Kelly made national headlines last year when he was held for weeks on a $1 million bond for first-degree murder.

The top charge was later downgraded to second-degree murder.

The farmer rejected a deal from prosecutors earlier this year that would have reduced the charge to one count of negligent homicide if he had agreed to plead guilty.