PHOENIX — A southern Arizona jury will resume deliberations Monday in the trial of a rancher accused of shooting and killing an unarmed migrant on his land near the U.S.-Mexico border.
Judge Thomas Fink sent the jurors home for the weekend after they were unable to reach a verdict on Friday.
Following a nearly month-long trial that came amid widespread attention on border security in a presidential election year, a jury returned a guilty verdict in the case on Thursday afternoon. George Alan Kelly, 75, is charged with second-degree murder in the Jan. 30, 2023, shooting death of Gabriel Kueng Buitimea.
Quyen Buitimea, 48, had been living in Nogales, Mexico, just south of the border, and according to court records, had entered the United States illegally on multiple occasions before, most recently being deported in 2016.
Amid intensifying anti-immigrant rhetoric and presidential campaign rallies, some on the political right are siding with ranchers.
Prosecutor Mike Jette said Kelly recklessly fired nine shots from an AK-47 rifle at a group of men, including Kueng Buitimea, about 100 yards away on his property.
Kelly said he fired warning shots into the air but did not fire directly at anyone.
Jette said Kuyen Vuitimea suffered three broken ribs and a severed aorta, and his unarmed body was found 115 yards from Kelly's ranch.
Investigators found nine spent AK-47 shell casings on the patio of Kelly's home, but the bullet that killed Kuyen Buitimea was never recovered.
Judge Jette urged the jury to find Kelly guilty of manslaughter or manslaughter if they could not convict him of murder, which carries a minimum sentence of 10 years in prison.
Jette, the Santa Cruz County assistant prosecutor, pointed to inconsistencies in Kelly's earlier statements to police — he variously said he saw five or 15 men at the ranch — and in trial testimony that Kelly initially told Border Patrol agents he was too far away to see if the migrants had guns, but later told sheriff's detectives the men were running with guns.
In her closing argument, attorney Brenna Larkin said Kelly was “in a life-or-death situation” and urged the jury to acquit him.
“He faced a threat just outside his home,” Larkin said. “He was entirely justified in using lethal force, but he did not.”
All other members of the group who were not injured returned to Mexico.
Kelly's wife, Wanda, testified that she saw two men carrying rifles and backpacks pass by the ranch house on the day of the shooting, but she claimed not to have heard any gunshots, although her husband reported hearing them.
Also testifying was Daniel Ramirez, a Honduran national living in Mexico, who said he had traveled with Quyen Buitimea that day to the United States seeking work and was with him when he was shot. Ramirez described Quyen Buitimea as clutching his chest and falling forward.
The trial began March 22 and included a tour of Kelly's 170-acre ranch outside Nogales.
Kelly was also charged with aggravated assault after previously rejecting a deal that would have reduced the charge to one count of manslaughter if he pleaded guilty.
