MEXICO CITY (AP) — The Mexican government on Friday charged Arizona rancher George Alan Kelly with first-degree murder charges for killing a Mexican immigrant as he tried to cross his property. said he thought it was.
An Arizona magistrate ruled last week that Kelly should be tried for second-degree murder and aggravated assault in the Jan. 30 death of Gabriel Kuhn Buitimere on a ranch outside Nogales, Arizona. bottom.
That decision came after prosecutors dropped Kelly’s charges from a single count of first-degree murder.
Vanessa Calva, Mexico’s head of consular protection, told U.S. prosecutors that Mexico believes the first-degree charges more accurately describe the circumstances of Quen Buitimea’s death. Said he said
She said Cuen-Buitimea was unarmed, fleeing and was shot in the back.
Cuen-Buitimea, a 48-year-old from Nogales, Mexico, was one of several migrants accused of being shot by a rancher.
A judge ruled that Kelly, 74, could remain free on $1 million bail pending arraignment on March 6, but was barred from contacting witnesses, Quen-Buitimere’s family, and possessing a firearm. There were restrictions such as prohibition of
Kimberly Hanley County Deputy Chief Prosecutor told the judge that prosecutors intended to prove second-degree murder. 100 yards (meters) away.
“There is no justification for shooting an unarmed man in the back,” Hanley told the judge.
Kelly’s attorney, Brenna Larkin, said her client opened fire over the immigrants. She said Kelly feared for his and his wife’s safety and property, and saw people with rifles and backpacks walk past his property.
Kelly appears to have written about pastoral life on the border in the self-published Far Beyond the Border Fence, described by Amazon.com as “a contemporary novel that brought Mexico’s border/drug conflict into the 21st century.” .
The shooting has stirred emotion as the national debate over border security heats up ahead of the 2024 presidential election.
Less than six months later, a prison warden and his brother were arrested in a shooting in West Texas that left one immigrant dead and another wounded. Michael Shepard and Mark Shepard, both in his 60s, were charged with manslaughter in a September shooting.