Trial starts for Arizona border rancher charged with killing migrant on his property
Trial starts for Arizona border rancher charged with killing migrant on his property
An Arizona rancher has gone on trial in the fatal shooting of a migrant on his property near Mexico. The trial of 75-year-old George Alan Kelly started Friday.
An Arizona rancher went on trial Friday in the fatal shooting of a migrant on his property near Mexico, with his defense attorney maintaining his innocence as the national debate over border security heats up ahead of this year’s presidential election.
George Alan Kelly, 75, has been charged with second-degree murder in the killing of a man he encountered on his property outside Nogales, Arizona. The jury trial in Santa Cruz County Superior Court is expected to last up to a month until around April 19, with proceedings held four days a week with Mondays off.
Kelly had earlier rejected a plea deal that would have reduced the charge to one count of negligent homicide if he pleaded guilty. His case has garnered the sympathy of some on the political right, with several efforts raising hundreds of thousands of dollars for his defense, including several on the GoFundMe platform that were quickly shut down because of the charges against him.
He was arrested and charged last year in the Jan. 30, 2023, fatal shooting of 48-year-old Gabriel Cuen-Buitimea of adjacent Nogales, Mexico, just south of the border.
I don’t really see any difference between a migrant on your property and any other human being. If it’s fair game to shoot migrants, it should be fair game to shoot the Christian fundamentalists and Mormons knocking on my door.
100Agree, but the context does matter here. Nogales is known for cartel drug (and human) smuggling. The article says the crossers on his ranch had been getting more aggressive(allegedly) so he armed himself.
The article also mentions that he saw 5 guys with large "backpacks" and rifles. That description is very likely drug smugglers (whose "backpacks" were actually 50-75lb marijuana bundles) and not just your average migrant crossers.
They also report hearing a gun shot.
But the article is sparse on how we get from that to the rancher "shooting over (allegedly unarmed) migrants heads" with a an ak47.
Especially because the timeframe was presumably "late lunch" aka broad daylight.
I'm always wary of jumping to conclusions because these stories are usually much more involved than headlines or even articles like this tend to let on.
23Exactly, how did he supposedly identify them as migrants without talking to them?
11Yeah, pretty sure that's the plan for most of them.
Republican Rep. Justin Heap says his bill would apply the law to farmers and ranchers using deadly force against trespassers on their land, not just in their home.
7So if I have a pot on my back porch and I grow some basil in it, does that make me a farmer? Can I start shooting the delivery drivers who are bringing packages to my door?
3
"His case has garnered the sympathy of some on the political right, with several efforts raising hundreds of thousands of dollars for his defense"
I hate this country.
Also, I'm really puzzled that this walking maga stereotype used a Russian weapon to attempt to murder an entire group of brown people. You'd think a guy like this would consider that "commie" shit. These types make as much sense as religious nuts.
37American Conservatives love Russia. It's exactly the brand of Dictatorship they want.
8People are unique. I've met conservatives who straight up told me they think communism could work.
I know that's difficult for some of you tribalists to understand, accept, and especially admit.
-1
They should try the Nitrogen mask on him.
17If someone shows complete lack of empathy and kills other humans like this, why should we have empathy for him?
6Because everyone deserves forgiveness?
1
All he has to do is cry some Rittenhouse tears.
8I’m not American so I’d appreciate if someone could explain what’s wrong (legally, not morally) in this situation? From what I understand you’re free to shoot trespassers on your property, isn’t that what the whole “muh freedom” culture about?
1From what I understand you’re free to shoot trespassers on your property, isn’t that what the whole “muh freedom” culture about?
Castle doctrine applies to people trespassing inside of your home, not just anyone on your land. We just had a guy get life in prison for opening fire on college students who drove up his rural driveway when they had the wrong address.
If they let this guy get away with what he did, it's actually a pretty scary precident for all of us.
16You should read the article.
I think he's lying, but the defense's claim is that the group the man was in posed a credible threat, as an armed group.
Of course, his victim didn't have any weapons, so gl with that one buddy. We don't have the full picture but that's a pretty damning detail by itself.
2
Typically deadly force can only be used if you think your life or safety is threatened, the police will still investigate the shooting and if they think your life or safety might not have been in jeopardy you'll end up in court hoping to justify your actions to a judge and jury.
5You can't just shoot anyone on your property as some people will have legitimate reasons to be there. As the other person said, your life has to be in danger.
Some states have expanded this to cover public property as well ("stand your ground") while many others give you a duty to retreat before you're justified in killing someone.
4Thank you for the explanation.
1
I'd be curious what the migrant was doing on his property and how the castle doctrine laws in Arizona come into play.
-38It's in the posted article:
Kelly shot at a group of unarmed migrants who were walking through his nearly 170-acre (69-hectare) cattle ranch in the Kino Springs area, and Cuen-Buitimea was among them, authorities said.
He was walking.
Guy fired an ak-47 into a group of unarmed men walking towards the border on his huge plot of land and killed one of them.
Still justified to you?
33Just say you think the migrant did it. You are almost there.
21Not what I was saying, but since this trial is going to last a month, there is more information than we know. I've done jury duty for a murder/homicide case and that only lasted about a week.
0
Being able to kill anyone (who's clearly not a threat) touching your property, without any repercussions, is the most barbaric, feudalist weirdest shit I've ever heard of. This type of shit doesn't belong to a supposedly developed country. It belongs to medieval vikings.
13Sounds more like you heard an undesirable got shot with a cool gun and are wondering what the official conservative take is.
Obviously they can't go with "he was a legal gun owner and a complete cunt and he killed someone because he wanted to, not because he was forced to" -- it's not profitable enough.
12Why are you curious, do you think he might have been doing something that deserved an extrajudicial execution?
7Nope. I don't agree with extrajudicial execution.
0
You mean that you are jealous and wish you could do it too.
6Lol some of you people are sick.
1
