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A mistrial was declared in the case of an American man accused of murdering an illegal who had no business trespassing on his property in Arizona.

D. Scott:

Trial of a southern Arizona rancher charged in fatal shooting of unarmed migrant goes to the jury.

The case has attracted national attention as border security continues to be a top issue this election year. Video from George Kelly and his attorney.

NOGALES, Ariz. — The trial of a southern Arizona rancher charged with fatally shooting an unarmed migrant on his property near the U.S.-Mexico border went to the jury Thursday.

In closing arguments earlier Thursday, lawyers debated the actions of 75-year-old George Alan Kelly, who is accused of second-degree murder in the January 30, 2023, shooting of Gabriel Cuen-Buitimea.

In the end, the jury was deadlocked and unable to reach a unanimous verdict in the trial of Arizona rancher George Alan Kelly. There was a lone holdout.

Slay News:

George Alan Kelly’s defense has confirmed that the Arizona rancher’s acquittal was blocked by “one, lone holdout” who wanted to convict.

The remaining jurors sought an acquittal, the lawyers revealed.

Kelly was on trial for “murder” for allegedly shooting and killing an illegal alien who was trespassing on his property.

However, Arizona Superior Court Judge Thomas Fink dramatically declared that the case ended in a mistrial on Monday.

The jurors were unable to reach a unanimous decision to convict Kelly of second-degree murder.

The prosecution’s case was a sick, politicized joke.

Slay:

Kelly’s defense attorney, Brenna Larkin, said in her closing argument last week that evidence did not support the prosecution’s claim that Cuen-Buitimea, was an “unarmed migrant pursuing the American Dream.”

The defense claimed that prosecutors failed to prove that Cuen-Buitimea was shot by Kelly’s gun.

The defense maintained that Kelly only fired warning shots into the air from his patio earlier that day.

Wanda Kelly testified about dialing their Border Patrol ranch liaison upon spotting two armed men dressed in camouflage and carrying rifles and backpacks walking about 100 feet from their home.

Law enforcement responded to the property, and hours passed before Kelly called Border Patrol again to report finding the body about 115 yards from the ranching couple’s residence.

A criminologist working pro bono as a consultant for Kelly’s defense, Dr. Ron Martinelli, excoriated Santa Cruz County Sheriff David Hathaway’s testimony.

Hathaway testified about having crossed the border to Mexico weeks after the shooting on Kelly’s ranch to interview Daniel Ramirez.

Ramirez was a Honduran man who prosecutors claim was the sole sight witness to Cuen-Buitimea’s death.

[…]

Ramirez testified that he formerly ran drugs across the border, though not on the day of the shooting, and had been deported several times.

[…]

Hathaway, who only recorded about six minutes of a 40-minute interview with Ramirez, was pressed about a conduit who arranged the meeting in Mexico named Juan Carlos Rodriguez.

Martinelli told Fox News that the district attorney’s office was forced to reveal to the defense team that Rodriguez is a twice-convicted felon.

The first conviction was for aggravated assault and domestic violence after strangling his girlfriend, and then he served another two years in prison “for the transportation of weapons into the United States.”

“We’re not here to solve the mystery,” Larkin said Thursday.

“And the fact is, we’re probably never going to know what really happened to Gabriel.

“And we won’t know because the investigation in this case jumped to conclusions.

“They didn’t search when they should have.

“They didn’t preserve evidence that they should have.

“They didn’t do tests that they should have. And now we’ll never know.”

“We all live in Santa Cruz County. I live in Santa Cruz County,” Larkin said.

“You folks live in Santa Cruz County.

“After reviewing all the evidence in this case, if I were to imagine finding a body on my property someday, hopefully that never happens.

“If I ever find a body on my property someday, and I don’t know what happened, and I don’t know how it got there, I think I’d be considering my options before I call these guys.”

Testimony also revealed that the fatal bullet was never recovered from the scene.

Martinelli also previously revealed that none of the state’s witnesses in the trial had provided any rebuttal testimony against the defense theory that a rip crew — a gang of bandits, sometimes cartel-affiliated — could have fatally shot Cuen-Buitimea and robbed him.

[…]

The defense said while Kelly would have been justified in using deadly physical force, the elderly rancher did not.

Larkin added that there is nothing in the law that prevents him from using lesser force to defend himself and his wife out on their isolated ranch “in the middle of nowhere.”

Kelly was charged with second-degree murder and aggravated assault. Kelly was defending himself, his wife, and his property from illegal invaders who are pouring over the border, thanks to Joe Biden’s reckless regime.

This hung jury might just make it tougher for the government to secure a conviction down the road, should they opt to retry him—and that’s good news for those who champion law and order and the American way. Frankly, this man should have never been on trial in the first place. But as you’ve seen, our justice system has been weaponized by the “America Last” Biden Regime and has gone so rogue that it’s barely recognizable as a serious system of law and order anymore.

George walked out of court, a free man.

For now.

Will they try him again? Well, as we mentioned earlier, if they do, they may have an uphill climb. Here’s more detail on that aspect of the case.

AZ Central: 

The serious legal jeopardy isn’t over for 75-year-old George Alan Kelly, the Arizona rancher accused of murdering a Mexican migrant on his ranch property on Jan. 30, 2023.

He still faces a count each of second-degree murder and aggravated assault.

But things moved decidedly in his favor on Monday, when a jury deadlocked after more than 15 hours of deliberation — meaning the prosecution had failed to fully convince an eight-member panel of his guilt.

While an acquittal would have been ideal for Kelly, his attorney said the mistrial was “the second-best answer,” the Arizona Daily Star reported.

Prosecutors must now decide if they want to retry Kelly with a new jury.

As for the first jury, it was spent. Its demeanor “suggested deliberations had been tense,” The Star reported.

In a case in which the physical evidence showed that Kelly had fired up to nine rounds that day and that a Mexican man had been shot to death on Kelly’s property near the U.S.-Mexico border, the facts would seem to favor the prosecution.

But Kelly enjoyed two important advantages at trial.

The first was that his case coincided with a national awakening to the emerging chaos and national security threats at the U.S.-Mexico border.

This year, according to a Gallup survey, Americans say immigration has become the number one problem confronting the country.

Images of migrant crowds gathering at border crossings are now a daily staple of cable TV news.

Kelly’s property is adjacent to the border and is often traveled by migrants. The defense argued that over the years the border has become demonstrably more dangerous, especially for people like Kelly who live on our southern border.

Mr. Kelly, like many other Americans living in that part of the country, has been forced to live in a lawless, scary “Wild West” atmosphere where anything can happen. This is all thanks to the Biden Regime, which is on a never-ending quest to beef up their voter pool. George is a 75-year-old American. Let him live out the rest of his life in peace, and close the border if you don’t want criminals to be shot.

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