By AP
A jury in southern Arizona resumed deliberations this Friday in the trial of a rancher accused of shooting to death an unarmed migrant on his property near the border between the United States and Mexico.
The jury received the case Thursday afternoon after nearly a month of trial, in a presidential election year when border security has gained widespread interest. George Alan Kelly, 75, is charged with manslaughter after shooting Gabriel Cuen Buitimea on January 30, 2023.
Cuen Buitimea, 48, lived just south of the border, in Nogales, Mexico. According to court records, he had previously entered the United States illegally several times and had been deported, most recently in 2016.
Some supporters of the political right have supported the rancher, at a time when anti-immigrant rhetoric and the presidential campaign intensify.
Prosecutor Mike Jette said Kelly recklessly fired nine shots from an AK-47 rifle at a group of nine men, including Cuen Buitimea, about 100 yards (90 meters) away inside his property.
Kelly said he had fired shots into the air as a warning, but did not shoot directly at anyone.
Jette said Cuen Buitimea suffered three broken ribs and a ruptured aorta. His unarmed body was found 105 meters (115 yards) away from Kelly's ranch house.
Although investigators found nine spent cartridges from Kelly's AK-47 in the yard of the house, the bullet that killed Cuen Buitimea was never recovered.
Jette asked jurors to find Kelly guilty of simple manslaughter or negligent homicide if they cannot find him guilty of the murder charge. A conviction for manslaughter carries a minimum sentence of 10 years in prison.
Jette, an assistant Santa Cruz County prosecutor, pointed out several contradictions in Kelly's first statements to authorities, saying indifferently that he had seen five or 15 men at the ranch. According to testimony presented at trial, Kelly also first told Border Patrol agents that the migrants were too far away from him to see if they were carrying weapons, but later told a county detective that the men were running away carrying firearms. .
Defense 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 confronted a threat right outside his home,” Larkin said. "He would have been absolutely justified if he had used deadly force, but he didn't."
No other person in the group was injured, and all of them managed to return to Mexico.
Kelly's wife, Wanda, testified that on the day of the shooting she had seen two men with rifles and backpacks in front of the ranch house. But her husband claimed to have heard a gunshot, while she did not.
Also testifying was Daniel Ramírez, a Honduran living in Mexico who said he had gone with Cuen Buitimea to the United States that day to look for work and that he was with him when he was shot. Ramírez said Cuen Buitimea put his hands on his chest and fell forward.
The trial, which began March 22, involves jurors who visited Kelly's nearly 170-acre (69-hectare) cattle ranch outside Nogales.
Kelly was also charged with aggravated assault. He previously rejected a deal that would have reduced the charge to negligent homicide if he pleaded guilty.