What is the Arizona Rancher (75-year-old, George Alan Kelly) accused of?

On January 30th, 2023, a 48-year-old man, Gabriel Cuen-Butimea, was shot “south of the border in Nogales, Mexico,” or “the Kino Springs area just outside Nogales, Arizona.” (found on newsweek.com) The address in which the killing took place (according to public records) was George Alan Kelly’s cattle ranch, leading to the arrest of Kelly (right after the fatality but before the trial). 

The victim, Gabriel Cuen-Butimea, was a migrant, which was discovered due to a Mexican voter registration card found on him when he was discovered at the crime. 

According to Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Chief Deputy Gerardo Castillo (said to Nogales International), there was no information to prove that these two men knew each other in any way prior to the murder, and there was no identifiable motive that authorities could locate. 

What was revealed at the trial of George Alan Kelly

The trial of George Alan Kelly started on March 22, 2024, and from then to April 22, 2024, much more information was revealed to the public about this crime that was not previously known by the public, right after the death of Gabriel Cuen-Butimea.

It was said that Gabriel Cuen-Butime was not alone at the scene but at the time was traveling with other migrants, when they saw “border patrol agents” they made a run for it, and as they continued to flee is when they came across George Alan Kellys’ cattle ranch.

They stumbled across Kelly’s cattle ranch when allegedly (according to prosecutors) Kelly “recklessly fired his AK-47 from a distance of about 115 yards, fatally striking Cuen-Buitimea in the back.”

During this whole trial, it also seemed that Kelly’s story seemed to change constantly; as he stated before to a border patrol agent, Jeremy Marcel, “he was returning fire after being shot at by a group of five armed individuals who were wearing packs and running southbound.” 

He later told law enforcement agents that he had even fired his weapon, and then about 10 minutes later, law enforcement officials stated that the story changed again as he said, “It was a group of about 10-15 people armed with AR-style rifles. 

Later on in the trial, he continued with his stories that were not consistent; the authorities stated, “Cuen-Buitimea was unarmed, and they were unable to find evidence that another weapon had been fired.” (according to abcnews.go.com) 

Kelly’s Lawyer’s main argument included a sense of relatability by stating things along the lines that if anyone had seen a group of migrants in front of their ranch, they would proceed to “take your AK-47, you walk out and don’t say a word, point it at them and you shoot.” but the prosecutor Mike Jette responded that this is not the reasonable or rational reaction of most people and it is not relatable to everyone listening (as the others had previously implied)

The attorney Brenna Larkin defended Kelly by stating, “That was not true, Alan never said that. Law enforcement wasn’t listening and they didn’t care, they already decided that he was guilty,” the lawyer told the judge and prosecutors that they had already thought of this before the trial and were not willing to listen. 

As the trial continued, Kelly had more evidence to defend his case, such as the claim that Kelly was just defending and or protecting himself along with his wife, along with the protest that Kelly had only fired warning shots at the migrants from a far distance.  

Yet at the same time, authorities were unable to locate a bullet that would have hit Cuen-Buitimea; this led to an assumption that another person of the migrant group could have shot him. 

From the view of the main detective, Jorge Ainza, “There is no other shot involved in this. The victim sustained a serious injury from a high-powered rifle, an AK-47 rifle with a trajectory directly from Mr. Kelly’s residence.”

As more information continued to be uncovered, it was also revealed that at the scene (Kelly’s Ranch), 9 shell casings fit the pattern of shots fired toward Cuen-Buitimea.

Jurors later heard testimony from a migrant who was there with Cuen-Buitimea as he stated that Cuen-Buitimea claimed to have grabbed his chest and said, “I’m hit” right before he passed. He also said that their migrant group was getting smuggled into the United States, and they were not carrying any drugs on them, but Ramirez alone stated that he had smuggled drugs previously in order “to reduce the fee he owed smugglers to get him across the border.”

What was the Verdict of George Alan Kelly

On Tuesday, April 22, 2024, a judge declared this case a mistrial. The jurors failed to make a consecutive decision, making this case a mistrial.