Anita Snow, The Associated Press

3 months ago

FILE – George Alan Kelly leaves the Santa Cruz County Courthouse with his attorney, Cathy Lowthorpe, after the first day of his trial, Friday, March 22, 2024, in Santa Cruz County Superior Court in Nogales, Arizona. Kelly, an Arizona ranch owner, is accused of shooting and killing a migrant on his property. As the third week of the trial concludes, jurors toured the scene of the murder. Jurors toured various parts of Kelly's ranch and parts of the U.S.-Mexico border, Thursday, April 11, 2024. (Angela Gervasi/Nogales International via The Associated Press, File)

PHOENIX (AP) — Jurors in the trial of an Arizona rancher accused of shooting and killing a migrant on his property near the U.S.-Mexico border toured the murder scene as the trial wrapped up its third week.

Court officials took jurors in vans on a tour of various parts of George Alan Kelly's ranch and part of the border Thursday. Superior Court Judge Thomas Fink denied a request for media to accompany them.

The incident in Nogales, Arizona, has attracted national attention as border security has become an increasingly prominent issue in this year's presidential election.

Fink said this week that the case has dragged on longer than expected and that he would impose time limits on testimony. Case It will be sent to the jury on Thursday.

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Kelly, 75, is charged with the second-degree murder of Mexican national Gabriel Quyen Buitimea, 48. Kelly has said he fired warning shots into the air but did not fire directly at anyone.

Quen Buitimere was among a group of migrants encountered on Kelly's 170-acre (69-hectare) ranch. Prosecutors say Kelly He recklessly fired his AK-47 rifle. He allegedly fired at migrants about 100 yards (90 metres) away, a theory denied by Kelly and his legal team.

While it is relatively rare for jurors to visit crime scenes, Fink suggested jurors in this case would be able to get a better understanding of how the events on the day of the shooting were viewed by the various people who testified.

Federal jurors were taken to the scene of the shooting after dark to observe what happened during the trial of a U.S. Border Patrol agent accused of shooting and killing a teenager who crossed the Mexican border in the Nogales, Arizona, area in 2018. Former Border Patrol agent Ronnie Schwartz was acquitted of killing 16-year-old Jose Antonio Elena Rodriguez after the jury was unable to reach a verdict on voluntary manslaughter.

Kelly was arrested and charged last year in the Jan. 30, 2023, shooting death of Quyen Buitimere, of Nogales, Mexico, just south of the border.

The bullet that killed Kueng Buitimea was never found on his body or at the scene.