NOGALES, Ariz.—An elderly Arizona rancher is on trial facing a second-degree murder charge in the shooting death of an illegal Mexican immigrant whom the defendant says he saw crossing on his property.
The state initially charged George Alan Kelly, 75, with first-degree murder, later downgraded to murder in the second degree, which removes the element of premeditation.
Instead, the state must prove “beyond a reasonable doubt” that on the afternoon of Jan. 30, 2023, Mr. Kelly, then 73, acted willfully and recklessly so that his conduct resulted in the death of Gabriel Cuen Buitimea, 48.
Mr. Kelly faces a second charge of aggravated assault using a deadly weapon, a semi-automatic rifle.
“Out of nowhere, without saying a thing, without any legal justification, George Alan Kelly let off a barrage of semi-automatic assault rifle fire at these ... men,” lead prosecutor Kimberly Hunley said in her opening statements in Santa Cruz County Superior Court on March 22.
“He stood on his back patio, and he shot a semi-automatic assault rifle through the patio, across a fence line, through a pasture where he keeps his horse, across another fence line, and a dirt road and into the back of Gabriel Cuen Buitimea.”
Ms. Hunley said that Mr. Buitimea was traveling with a group of other “undocumented migrants—illegal immigrants—who crossed the border illegally through the end of the border wall.”
“And they crossed the border really early that morning, hiked into the national forest, all day,” Ms. Hunley said.
When Mr. Kelly saw the group of men from his kitchen window, he grabbed his AK-47 rifle that he kept near the front door, she said.
He then walked out of the house, stepped onto the patio, and opened fire at the men, who scattered and began running back toward the U.S.–Mexico border.
From a distance of 115 yards (345 feet), Mr. Kelly shot Mr. Buitimea in the lower back, killing him where he stood, Ms. Hunley told the 12-member jury of nine men and three women.
Law enforcement would later recover nine spent shell casings used in an AK-47 from Mr. Kelly’s patio and another eight casings scattered on his property.
Law enforcement was unable to locate a bullet to match the weapon Mr. Kelly allegedly used to shoot and kill Mr. Buitimea.
The state will instead rely on wound and trajectory analysis to prove that the fatal shot came from Mr. Kelly’s patio area.
Daniel Ramirez, another illegal immigrant and a key prosecution witness, was just “steps away” from the victim when they heard a “barrage” of gunfire, Ms. Hunley said.
She described Mr. Ramirez as a “really humble guy” from Honduras with an elementary school education who spent many years in Mexico working as a farmhand.
The two men met in Mexico during the off-season. They began talking about crossing into the United States illegally to work as roofers.
They paid “illegal folks” to illegally cross the border, Ms. Hunley said.
She said Mr. Ramirez would testify that he saw the victim cry out that he'd been shot, grab his chest, and fall to the ground, and she said she will show how Mr. Kelly’s horse was instrumental in saving Mr. Ramirez’s life.
“Daniel had to run for his life because the shots were ringing out all around him,” she said.
During the trial, the prosecution will call members of the Border Patrol and Santa Cruz Sheriff’s Department who investigated the case as witnesses.
They will claim that Mr. Kelly made “inconsistent statements” during questioning, Ms. Hunley said.
Mr. Kelly at first told officers he heard a single gunshot but waited 30 minutes into an interview with a detective to say that he had fired his weapon, Ms. Hunley said.
He later told investigators that he saw a group of men carrying rifles, then reported they were too far away to see whether they were armed, she said.
The state will also call on forensics and ballistics experts who will testify that the shot that killed Mr. Buitimea came from a distance and the direction of Mr. Kelly’s residence, Ms. Hunley said.
In her opening statements, defense attorney Brenna Larkin portrayed the defendant as a “compassionate man” who sympathized with illegal migrant families he would often encounter on his property.
However, as time went on, the illegal traffic took a more sinister turn, Ms. Larkin said.
Now, men wearing camouflage backpacks and carrying hand-held radios and cell phones were using his property as a “corridor”—these men were allegedly involved in drug and human trafficking.
“Things start to change,” she said. “Mr. Kelly’s not seeing as many family groups anymore. Mr. Kelly starts to see individuals carrying backpacks—men, always men—carrying backpacks and going along the fence lines.
“He knows that these are individuals engaged in illegal activity. Because when they see him, they run away.
“Things change in a very dangerous and very frightening way for Mr. Kelly and his wife. Mr. Kelly starts to see larger groups. And he starts to see larger groups of men carrying large backpacks.”
On the afternoon of the shooting, an initial sweep of Mr. Kelly’s property by law enforcement officers turned up no victim, Ms. Larkin said.
However, when Mr. Kelly went out hours later to check on his horse, his two dogs keyed in on something nearby.
Mr. Kelly said he went to investigate and it was then that he found a body lying face down in the tall grass.
Authorities later identified the body as that of Mr. Buitimea, who was wearing tan pants and carrying a camouflage backpack, a cellphone, a fanny pack, and a hand-held radio.
The incident allegedly took place near Kino Springs, located north of a national forest and east of the city of Nogales, Arizona. The U.S.–Mexico border is about 1.5 miles south of Mr. Kelly’s property.
The prosecution contends that Mr. Kelly used the term “animal” to describe the victim in an emotionally charged phone call with a police dispatcher.
Ms. Hunley said that Daniel Ramirez and the victim posed no threat to Mr. Kelly and no threat to his life. “They were walking parallel to the Kelly residence and his back to the United States-Mexico border.”
“I’m going to ask you to [view] Gabriel Cuen Buitimea as a person, as a man, and not as George Alan Kelly described him—as an animal,” she said.
Ms. Larkin, however, said the evidence will show that Mr. Kelly is not “a mean or violent person or that Mr. Kelly hates anybody.” In his frantic state of mind, he used the word “animal” to inform the dispatcher that the victim was not a “mineral or vegetable.”
“These [text] messages did not take away from Mr. Kelly’s compassionate heart,” she said. “The evidence is going to show that this interview is very hostile. The detectives are not interested in anything other than obtaining evidence of Mr. Kelly’s guilt.
“They’re not interested in being open-minded—to listen to what he’s saying. And once again, we find examples of changing Mr. Kelly’s words when he doesn’t say what they want him to say. When he doesn’t say the thing, that makes him guilty.”
Judge Thomas Fink said the trial should wrap up on April 19 and that only eight of the 12 jurors will deliberate at the end of the trial. Four will serve as alternates.
Testimony in the case will resume on March 26.
During the opening statements, members of the Mexican consulate sat in the audience, wearing black clothing and red ribbons in support of the victim.
A woman in the group at one point broke into tears upon hearing the prosecutor describe the victim’s gunshot wound.
“Make no mistake, Mexico will continue to accompany the family. Mexico is hoping for this case to be just,” Marcos Morena Báez, consul general of Mexico in Nogales, Arizona, told The Epoch Times.
“The family is obviously looking for justice.”
Anna Pareda, a lifelong Nogales resident, also sat in the audience listening to the opening remarks. She worked for 32 years as a U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer along the southern border with Nogales.
Ms. Pareda told The Epoch Times she is attending the trial to show support for Mr. Kelly and border property owners—including her—who face similar circumstances involving illegal crossings.
She said her first impression is that Mr. Kelly and his wife are an elderly couple who live “too close to the border, and there’s not enough Border Patrol to go around.”
The prosecution, she said, is “disregarding the fact” that Mr. Buitimea and Mr. Rodriguez were in the United States illegally.
“And we know there’s a lot of drug trafficking,” she said. “What I’ve seen in decades of living here is poor illegal immigrants looking for work. Now, it’s turned into a cartel business.
“They’re not going to come crossing for free. They pay to cross illegally. At the same time, a lot of them are carrying drugs in their backpacks.
“It’s dangerous. I live a mile from the border, and in my backyard, I’ve seen camouflaged illegals completely from head to toe. I know what they’re up to. It’s not just to come to work as roofers in the United States.”
