Santa Cruz County Declines Retrial for George Alan Kelly in Border Murder Case

George Alan Kelly, accused of murdering Mexican national Gabriel Cuen-Buitimea on his border property in Arizona last January, will not face a retrial after a mistrial was declared following jury deadlock earlier this year. In her announcement to the court last week, Santa Cruz County Attorney’s Office Deputy Kimberly Hunley cited “unique circumstances and challenges” surrounding the case as justification for their decision not to seek another trial. Cuen-Buitimea had previously been deported from the US in 2016 after multiple unlawful entries into the country, but Kelly’s defense argued that he only fired warning shots with an AK-47 rifle and did not directly aim at anyone when prosecutors claimed nine of those bullets were recklessly discharged towards a group including Cuen-Buitimea. The fatal bullet was never recovered from the scene. During closing arguments, Kelly’s attorney Brenna Larkin highlighted concerns over criminal activities carried out by people trying to enter into or travel across his 170-acre cattle ranch near Keno Springs outside Nogales, Arizona, where Cuen-Buitimea died. The defense argued that this case was not about “judgmental” attitudes towards migrants but rather the dangers of criminal activities incurred by such individuals entering or crossing his property line. Kelly previously rejected a plea deal from prosecutors earlier this year which would have seen him charged with one count of negligent homicide instead of second-degree murder on condition he admits to guilty, likely owing to doubts surrounding the circumstances of Cuen-Buitimea’s death.