On April 18, the jury began deliberations. But on April 22, after days of deliberation, Arizona Superior Court Judge Thomas Fink declared a mistrial after the jury was unable to reach a verdict. This was the second time the jury could not reach a verdict. Jurors were instructed to decide whether to convict him on that charge or reduce the charge to either manslaughter or negligent homicide. "Based upon the jury's inability to reach a verdict on any count," Superior Court Judge Thomas Fink said, "This case is in mistrial." George Alan Kelly was charged with second-degree murder in connection to the death of Mexican national Gabriel Cuen Buitimea, who was found dead 115 yards from Kelly’s house after a shooting incident in January. Buitimea had been traveling from Mexico with another man, Daniel Ramirez, to seek work in the U.S. Court records show that Buitimea had illegally entered the U.S. and had been deported at least three times between 2011 and 2016. He has also admitted to smuggling drugs into the U.S. Prosecutors said Kelly recklessly fired a rifle toward the migrants. Kelly’s defense team rejected that explanation. "Long story short, this is simply not somebody who's looking for the American dream. There's no evidence that this person is here for those kinds of benign purposes," Kelly's defense attorney, Brenna Larkin, said during her closing argument on Thursday. "And we bring that up, not, you know, to be judgmental about Gabriel or to not have compassion for him. But when people are involved in a criminal lifestyle, it's dangerous. It's more inherently dangerous than simply being a migrant who's coming here. So it's relevant for that reason." Kelly’s defense team argued that he just fired warning shots into the air from his patio earlier that day. Authorities never recovered a bullet from the scene.A judge declared a mistrial in the murder case of an Arizona rancher accused of fatally shooting an illegal alien on his property.
