By Staff Reporter |

On Monday, the Arizona Superior Court declared a mistrial in the case of George Alan Kelly, 75, the rancher who shot and killed an illegal immigrant trespassing his property.

The jury was unable to reach a verdict in Kelly’s case (CR-23-0026). Judge Thomas Fink scheduled a status reading for next Monday, April 29, to allow the state to determine whether it would request a retrial. 

Fink read aloud a note from the jurors insisting that further deliberations wouldn’t resolve their deadlock.

The Santa Cruz County Attorney’s Office initially charged Kelly with first-degree murder for killing an illegal immigrant, 48-year-old Gabriel Cuen-Buitimea, trespassing Kelly’s property in Nogales last January. Cuen-Buitimea had previously been convicted and deported several times. The attorney’s office later lowered the charge to second-degree murder.

According to court documents, discovery of Cuen-Buitimea’s remains occurred after Kelly had called law enforcement twice: once in the early afternoon to report illegal immigrants possibly firing shots on his property, and once that evening to report the discovery of Cuen-Buitimea’s remains. Cuen-Buitimea was found unarmed. 

Kelly’s co-counsel, Kathy Lowthorp, told NewsNation post-verdict that the jury was 7-1 for a “not guilty” verdict. Only one juror believed that Kelly was guilty of second-degree murder. Their defense team unsuccessfully fought the mistrial ruling and supported extending jury deliberation. The prosecution supported the declaration of a mistrial.

The jurors opted to maintain their deadlock over a unanimous decision on either reckless manslaughter or negligent homicide, which Fink suggested.

The Arizona Superior Court posted all videos of the 18-day trial to their YouTube page; they have also posted relevant case documents to their website, which includes the minute entries outlining the main events in the trial. The trial began exactly a month ago. 

During court proceedings, Kelly’s other co-counsel, Brenna Larkin, testified that Cuen-Buitimea was one among a group of five men trespassing his land with large backpacks and rifles. Larkin clarified that Kelly shot in the sky above the men to ward them off after hearing a shot fired, ostensibly by the group of men. 

Larkin stated in closing arguments that Cuen-Buitimea posed a very real threat to Kelly and his wife. 

“Long story short, this is simply not somebody who’s looking for the American dream,” said Larkin. “There’s no evidence that this person is here for those kinds of benign purposes.”

The prosecution’s key witness against Kelly — Daniel Ramirez, another in the group that trespassed Kelly’s land on that fateful day — has falsely told the court he had no prior drug-related convictions, though he was previously convicted of drug smuggling nearly a decade ago. 

Kelly’s counsel further claimed that the prosecution had coached, editorialized, and mistranslated Ramirez’s testimony. 

“It is particularly disturbing that the State either failed to review the witness’s criminal history prior to putting him on the stand, or the State concealed the witness’s criminal history,” stated Kelly’s counsel. 

AP News reported that Nogales’ consul general of the Mexican consulate, Marcos Moreno Baez, waited with Cuen-Buitimea’s daughters on Monday after the verdict to meet with prosecutors.

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