PHOENIX (AP) — An Arizona judge declared a mistrial Monday within the case of a rancher accused of fatally shooting a Mexican man on his property near the U.S.-Mexico border.
The decision got here after jurors within the trial of 75-year-old George Alan Kelly failed to succeed in a unanimous decision after greater than two days of deliberations.
Kelly was charged with second-degree murder within the Jan. 30, 2023, shooting death of 48-year-old Gabriel Cuen-Buitimea, who lived south of the border in Nogales, Mexico.
Prosecutors said Kelly recklessly fired nine shots from an AK-47 rifle at a bunch of men, including Cuen-Buitimea, about 90 yards away at his cattle ranch. Kelly said he fired warning shots within the air but didn’t shoot directly at anyone.
Court officials took the jury to Kelly's ranch and a bit of the border. Supreme Court Justice Thomas Fink declined news media requests to participate.
After Monday's decision, Consul General Marcos Moreno Baez of the Mexican consulate in Nogales, Arizona, said he would wait Monday evening with Cuen-Buitimea's two adult daughters to fulfill with prosecutors from the Santa Cruz County District Attorney's Office to debate the implications to tell of a mistrial.
“Mexico will continue to follow the case and continue to accompany the family who want justice,” Moreno said. “We hope for a very fair outcome.”
Kelly had previously rejected a take care of prosecutors that will have reduced the charge to 1 count of involuntary manslaughter if he had pleaded guilty.
Kelly was also charged that day with aggravated assault against one other person within the group of about eight, including a person from Honduras who lived in Mexico and testified in the course of the trial that he traveled to the United States that day searching for work was.
Cuen-Buitimea lived south of the border in Nogales, Mexico. He had entered the United States illegally and been deported several times, most recently in 2016, court records show.
The nearly month-long trial coincided with a presidential election 12 months that has sparked widespread interest in border security.
Fink had told jurors that if they may not reach a verdict on the second-degree murder charge, they may seek a unanimous decision on a lesser charge of involuntary manslaughter or involuntary manslaughter. A conviction of second-degree murder would have resulted in a sentence of a minimum of 10 years in prison.
The jury received the case on Thursday afternoon, deliberated briefly that day after which throughout Friday and Monday.
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