arizona news
Has been updated: February 6, 2023 at 8:22 PM
George Alan Kelly (Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office)
NOGALES, Arizona (AP) — A rancher near the Arizona border with Mexico has been charged with first-degree murder last week in the shooting death of a man provisionally identified as a Mexican citizen. . His bail was set at $1 million.
The Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office in Nogales, Arizona, confirmed Monday that 73-year-old George Alan Kelly was arrested last week for the murder. , believed to be 48-year-old Gabriel Cuen Butimea, who lived just south of the border in Nogales, Mexico.
The killing occurred on Jan. 30 in the Kino Springs area just outside Nogales, Arizona, said Sheriff’s Chief of Staff Gerard Castillo. The address where the killing took place is the same address listed in public records for Kelly’s cattle ranch.
Details of the shooting were sketchy and it was unclear whether the two men had known each other before.
Kelly was being held at the Santa Cruz County Jail after being charged in the county judicial court last week. He is scheduled to return to court on Wednesday.
Local attorney Brenna Larkin, appointed by the court to defend Kelly, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the charges against him.
