At about 2:40 p.m. that afternoon, a Nogales Border Patrol agent was on the phone with the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office.

“Ignore it,” a Border Patrol agent, who identified himself as the supervisor, said over the phone about a minute later. I don’t know if the man is crazy or what’s going on.”

George Alan Kelly, a rancher in the Nogales area, told a sheriff’s dispatcher the same day that he had found a “animal – neither vegetable nor mineral” body on his property.

Court records show that when deputies arrived, Kelly took them to the body of 48-year-old Gabriel Kuen Buitimere in Nogales, Sonora, where he was shot dead.

Kelly, 74, has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder in Kuhn’s death. His defense attorney, Brenna Larkin, told the judge that Kelly only fired warning shots at the head of a group of armed drug traffickers who approached him on his property.

Larkin did not respond to Starr’s request for comment on Thursday.

Prosecutors say Kuhn, an undocumented immigrant, was unarmed and shot Kelly in an unprovoked attack as he tried to flee.

The two calls, one of many recorded between Border Patrol, Sheriff’s Office and Kelly on Jan. 30, were recorded in public records obtained by the Arizona Daily Star late Wednesday afternoon. can be, Nogales International.

Prosecutor Kim Hanley, the chief deputy county attorney for Santa Cruz County, said Thursday that ethics rules forbid him from commenting on the ongoing case.

Minutes after the initial call, during another recording between border patrol and sheriff’s offices in Nogales, conflicting statements were made as to whether Kelly said he fired or was shot. there is.

“He called our ranch liaison a few minutes ago and said he wasn’t here directly and was shooting five people shooting back at him,” the agent said. told the sheriff’s office.

Later in the call, the agent said Kelly’s last statement, eight minutes earlier, was, “He thinks they’re shooting at him. He thinks he hears gunshots. And people running. I saw him there, but he didn’t see a firearm, but he uses a weapon to check the ranch and check the livestock.”

When asked by the sheriff’s office whether Kelly shot back, investigators said, “No. At least he didn’t say he did.”

The agent also said Kelly had made similar calls before, which ultimately involved illegal immigration to his property.

At 5:52 p.m., in another follow-up call from the Aho Border Patrol supervisor, the agent called the sheriff’s office dispatcher and Kelly called the Border Patrol ranch liaison again, but This time, “he’s intentionally vague,” he said.

“What he said was that he believes he may have hit something when he checked his belongings. He said the words ‘probably hit something.’ “And my ranch liaison said, ‘Hey, has someone been shot on your property? Can you call 911?’ No, I’ll call you guys because you guys usually come first.”

At 5:58 pm, the sheriff’s dispatcher called Kelly for more information. Kelly first told the dispatcher to send a deputy to his ranch immediately, but he was hesitant to say why. He answered many of the dispatcher’s questions with lengthy silence, but the answers, he admitted, were vague.

“It’s very serious, ma’am, I can’t do it. I’m not going to talk on the phone,” he said.

When the dispatcher asked what she shot, based on the information she got from the border patrol, he replied, “I didn’t shoot anything. I didn’t say I shot anything.” .

“I don’t want to bother you and I don’t want to bother you,” Kelly told the dispatcher. is that we need a sheriff’s deputy here…that’s all I can tell your wife right now.”

When she asked if anyone was injured and if an ambulance should be sent, he said: Well, I’m not acknowledging what I did, but it all tends to add up, and I don’t know what happened, just knowing what I saw about 15 minutes ago , Ambulance will not help. EMT is useless. Nothing can be helped by EMTs or emergency services. ”

At one point, Kelly said she was referring to “the body.” The dispatcher asked Kelly to take his deputies to what they found when they arrived. Kelly said, “I have a flashlight on it.”

“I just approached the corpse to make sure the animal was not alive and not alive,” Kelly told the dispatcher.

“There was no trace of blood, just an animal lying face down,” Kelly said.

When the dispatcher confirms “animal?” Kelly repeated, “Neither vegetables nor minerals.” He said he would bring his agent to it.

Court records show that when the deputies arrived, he took them to Kuhn’s body, where he placed a flashlight on the ground.

Prosecutors say no weapons or drugs were found on Kuhn’s body.

The defense says Kuhn was most likely shot by someone else, not Kelly.

Kelly was originally charged with first-degree murder in the case, but he also pleaded not guilty before the state downgraded to second-degree murder.

Prosecutor Hanley said that even if Kelly accidentally shot Kuen with the intention of firing a warning shot, the state could establish that he committed second-degree murder because of his “extreme indifference” to human life. explained the reduced charges. death. “

Kelly’s attorney, Larkin, countered.

According to autopsy reports, the bullet entered Kuen’s body through the lower right portion of his ribcage and exited through Arizona’s upper left chest. reportciting the testimony of Santa Cruz County Sheriff Jorge Ainza, who arrested Kelly.

A judge has set a September trial date for Kelly, who was released on February 22 on a $1 million cash guarantee.

There is a self-published book on Amazon called “Far Beyond the Border Fence,” supposedly written by Kelly. The book’s abstract says it is “a contemporary novel that brings the Mexican border/drug conflict into her 21st century.”

Written by a man with the same name as Kelly, the novel focuses on a man named George and his wife Wanda, the name of Kelly’s real-life wife.

“Several times a week, illegal immigrants cross the VMR ranch,” states a passage in the book. “They were led by armed human smugglers called coyotes. George and the foreman had to patrol the ranch daily armed with AK-47s.”