The Arizona Rancher who was charged after finding an illegal alien dead on his property will not be retried, prosecutors announced.
The case against George Alan Kelly ultimately ended in a mistrial after the jury deliberated for more than 15 hours and deadlocked. The state accused Kelly of murdering Gabriel Cuen-Buitimea on Jan. 30, 2023, and charged the 76-year-old with second-degree murder.
Kelly always maintained his innocence. His lawyers said that on the day of the alleged attack, Kelly and his wife were eating lunch in their home when he heard a single gunshot and saw at least five men in camouflage moving across his property, which borders Mexico. He called a Border Patrol Ranch liaison before going onto his porch, where he says one of the men pointed an AK-47 at him.
“Mr. Kelly, fearing for his life and safety, fired several shots from his rifle, hoping to scare them away from him, his wife, his animals, and his home,” said the document filed by the defense. “As he shot, Kelly took care to aim well over the heads of the armed group of men. The group then began running into the desert surrounding his home.”
Law enforcement arrived and searched the property but did not find the men. Later, while checking on his livestock, Kelly found Cuen-Buitimea’s body. The deceased man was wearing tactical boots and had a two-way radio. The rancher then called the sheriff’s office.
Kelly was subsequently arrested and his bail was set at $1 million.
Cuen-Buitimea has a previous history of illegally entering the United States. The bullet that killed him was never recovered by law enforcement.
“The primary witness in the case is a Honduran illegal alien, Daniel Ramirez, who has a history of drug convictions in the U.S.,” noted immigration news outlet Border Hawk on X.
Ramirez testified that he was traveling with a group of illegal aliens, including Cuen-Buitimea, on the day of the shooting. He said he had paid “coyotes” $25,000 for 10 illegal entries in the United States. While he said he was with the victim when he was shot, Ramirez did not identify Kelly as the shooter. Ramirez also testified that he had previously carried drugs into the U.S. and that he gave American investigators a fake name, per The Epoch Times.
The prosecution claimed the rancher “walked out of his house and opened fire on two unarmed men who were unsuspecting” without giving any verbal warnings.
“In a photo that prosecutors took from Kelly’s back patio, the area where Buitimea died was barely visible to the naked eye,” noted AZ Central.
Kelly refused a plea deal offered to him by the state in January 2024. He opted to take the case to trial.
The rancher's defense team told Fox News that there was just one "holdout" juror who wanted to convict Kelly. The other seven jurors were in favor of an acquittal.
