- Kelly, 75, was accused of killing Gabriel Cuen-Butimea on January 30, 2023, at his home in Nogales, near the border with Mexico.
- The decision came after jurors failed to reach a unanimous decision after more than two full days of deliberation.
- The Santa Cruz County Prosecutor’s Office can still decide whether to retry Kelly on any charges or drop the case entirely.
A mistrial was declared, freeing Arizona rancher George Alan Kelly after he was accused of shooting to death an unarmed Mexican migrant on his land.
Kelly, 75, was accused of killing Gabriel Cuen-Butimea on January 30, 2023, at his home in Nogales, near the border with Mexico.
The decision came after jurors failed to reach a unanimous decision after more than two full days of deliberation.
“Based on the jury’s inability to reach a verdict on any charge,” Judge Thomas Fink said, “this case is declared a mistrial.”
The Santa Cruz County Prosecutor’s Office can still decide whether to retry Kelly on any charges or drop the case entirely.
A mistrial was declared, freeing Arizona rancher George Alan Kelly (pictured left) after he was accused of shooting to death an unarmed Mexican migrant on his land.
A status hearing is scheduled for next Monday afternoon, when prosecutors could tell the judge whether they plan to refile the case.
DailyMail.com has contacted the Santa Cruz County District Attorney’s Office for comment.
Kelly was charged with second-degree murder for killing Cuen-Buitimea, 48, who lived just south of the border in Nogales, Mexico.
Prosecutors said Kelly recklessly fired nine shots from an AK-47 rifle toward a group of men, including Cuen-Buitimea, about 90 meters (100 yards) away on his cattle ranch.
Kelly has said he fired warning shots into the air, but did not shoot directly at anyone.
Court officials took jurors to Kelly’s ranch, as well as a section of the frontier. Superior Court Judge Thomas Fink denied media requests to accompany him.
After Monday’s ruling, Consul General Marcos Moreno Báez of the Mexican consulate in Nogales, Arizona, said he would wait with Cuen-Buitimea’s two adult daughters Monday night to meet with prosecutors from the Santa County District Attorney’s Office. Cruz to learn more about the case. implications of a mistrial.
‘Mexico will follow the case and continue to accompany the family, who wants justice.’ Moreno said. “We hope for a very fair result.”
Kelly’s defense attorney, Brenna Larkin, did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment after the ruling was issued. Larkin had asked Fink that the jurors continue deliberating one more day.
He had previously rejected a agreement with prosecutors that would have reduced the charge to a count of negligent homicide if he had pleaded guilty.
Kelly was also charged with aggravated assault that day against another person in the group of about eight people, including a man from Honduras who lived in Mexico and who testified during the trial that he had gone to the United States that day to look for work.
The other migrants were not injured and all managed to return to Mexico.
Cuen-Buitimea lived just south of the border in Nogales, Mexico. He had previously entered the United States illegally several times and was deported, the last time in 2016, court records show.
The trial, which lasted nearly a month, coincided with a presidential election year that has sparked widespread interest in border security.
Fink had told jurors that if they couldn’t reach a verdict on the second-degree murder charge, they could try to get a unanimous decision on a lesser charge of manslaughter or negligent homicide.
A conviction for second-degree murder would have carried a minimum prison sentence of ten years.
The jury received the case Thursday afternoon, deliberated briefly that day and then all day Friday and Monday.
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