Jury weighs case against Arizona rancher in migrant killing
PHOENIX — A jury in southern Arizona was ordered to resume deliberations Friday in the trial of a rancher accused of fatally shooting an unarmed migrant on his property near the U.S.-Mexico border.
Jurors received the case Thursday afternoon after a nearly month-long trial in a presidential election year that has sparked widespread interest in border security. George Alan Kelly, 75, is charged with second-degree murder in the Jan. 30, 2023, shooting of Gabriel Cuen-Buitimea.
The Santa Cruz County Superior Court did not immediately confirm whether the jury would hear the case again at 8:30 a.m., as ordered by Judge Thomas Fink.
Cuen-Buitimea, 48, lived just south of the border in Nogales, Mexico. Court records show Cuen-Buitimea had previously entered the U.S. illegally and been deported several times, most recently in 2016.
Some on the political right have supported the farmer as anti-migrant rhetoric and presidential campaigns intensify.
Prosecutor Mike Jette said Kelly recklessly fired an AK-47 rifle at a group of men, including Cuen-Buitimea, about 300 feet away on his property.
Kelly said he fired warning shots into the air but did not shoot anyone directly.
Jette said Kelly fired nine shots at the group.
The prosecutor said Cuen-Buitimea suffered three broken ribs and a severed aorta.
Jette encouraged jurors to find Kelly guilty of reckless manslaughter or negligent homicide if they cannot convict him of murder. A conviction for second-degree murder would carry a minimum prison sentence of 10 years.
Attorney Brenna Larkin urged jurors to find Kelly not guilty, saying in her closing argument that Kelly “was in a life or death situation.”
“He was confronted with a threat right outside his home,” Larkin said. “It would have been absolutely justified to use deadly force, but he didn’t.”
No one else in the group was injured and they all returned to Mexico.
At the trial, which began March 22, jurors visited Kelly’s 150-acre cattle ranch outside Nogales.
Kelly was also charged with aggravated assault. He previously rejected a deal that would have reduced the charge to one count of negligent homicide if he had pleaded guilty.