2024-01-04 05:56:02
NOGALES, Ariz. (AP) — A rancher accused of shooting and killing a migrant last year on his property near the U.S.-Mexico border will go to trial March 21.
George Alan Kelly on Wednesday rejected the plea deal offered by the prosecution and that, if he pleaded guilty, he would have reduced the charges against him to one for negligent homicide, according to the newspaper Arizona Republic.
Kelly’s trial in Santa Cruz County Superior Court is scheduled to last three weeks, the newspaper added.
Kelly, 75, was arrested and charged with second-degree murder and aggravated assault for shooting and killing Gabriel Cuen-Buitimea, 48, of Nogales, Mexico, on January 30, 2023.
Authorities said Kelly shot at a group of unarmed migrants walking past his roughly 170-acre (69-hectare) cattle ranch in the Kino Springs area. Cuen-Buitimea was one of them.
According to the prosecution, the rancher recklessly fired an AK-47 rifle at the migrants, who were about 90 meters (100 yards) from his position.
But his lawyer maintains that he shot into the air to avoid the migrants and that he feared for his safety, that of his wife and his property.
The other migrants were not injured and managed to escape back to Mexico.
Cuen-Buitimea had entered the United States illegally several times and was convicted and deported, the last time in 2016, according to court records.
The shooting adds to the intense national debate over border security ahead of the US presidential election in November.
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