Southwest
Arizona rancher defense consultant claims 'cartel influence' in murder probe, rips sheriff's past comments
A consultant for Arizona rancher George Alan Kelly’s defense team told Fox News Digital that they believe the murder investigation was mired by “cartel influence,” as Santa Cruz County Sheriff David Hathaway is expected to take the stand this week to testify about traveling across the border to Mexico to interview the prosecution’s main witness.
Hathaway, who the defense told the judge last week they plan to call as a witness, was notably featured in a YouTube video published about a month ago by real estate agent Sydney Wilburn, who goes by Big Super online, in which the sheriff gives a tour of his home and the borderlands neighborhood where his family has resided since the 1800s.
The sheriff referenced the Kelly case on camera, without using the rancher’s name, describing how “there are people that’ll come to the border thinking they’re going to find some action.”
“Like, we had a rancher here that had been writing fan fiction on Amazon, and he was describing himself hunting migrants with his AK-47, and he actually even used his name, and his wife’s name, and his ranch’s name, and he came from somewhere else,” Hathaway said. “Then we caught him out there actually shooting at some people out there, shooting at some migrants, killed one of them, and one of them got away, so now he’s being prosecuted for homicide in the county.”
ARIZONA RANCHER GEORGE ALAN KELLY’S WIFE TESTIFIES IN MURDER TRIAL, DESCRIBES ARMED MEN NEAR BORDERLANDS HOME
George Alan Kelly enters court for his preliminary hearing in Nogales Justice Court in Nogales, Arizona, Feb. 22, 2023. (Mark Henle/The Arizona Republic via AP, Pool, File)
Walking his property, and speaking to the camera, the sheriff continued, “That’s an example of a guy with that mentality. They come out here, and they want to say, ‘I’m out here in the Wild West,’ and they want to have a big tough story to tell. ‘I’m gonna go out there, and hunt me some Mexicans,’ you know? And that appeals to some people, but that’s not a common thing.”
“He’s an extremist,” Wilburn, who has 120,000 YouTube subscribers, chimes in from off-camera.
“Yeah, you would not see people like that,” Hathaway added in the 52-minute video viewed by Fox News Digital. “It’s not like there’s a bunch of groups wandering around with that attitude.”
Fox News Digital reached out to Hathaway for comment, but he did not immediately respond.
Dr. Ron Martinelli, a forensic criminologist who is working pro-bono for the Kelly defense as their lead consultant with the forensic death investigation, told Fox News Digital that “these are completely inappropriate, prejudicial and extremely biased statements about a criminal defendant.”
The consultant said the video was referencing Kelly because, although Hathaway didn’t mention Kelly by name, the sheriff had been “literally driving through Mr. Kelly’s neighborhood.”
“But what is Mr. Kelly’s motive? So we have a rancher on a very nice ranch with an impeccable background of cooperation with law enforcement. He’s never been in trouble in his life. And according to Sheriff Hathaway and the state’s theory of criminality, Mr. Kelly woke up one morning and just decided he was going to kill him, a Mexican?” Martinelli said. “That’s absurd.”
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Kelly’s wife testified earlier in the trial that she saw a group of armed men dressed in camouflage and carrying packs near their residence on their 170-acre cattle ranch near Keno Springs outside Nogales, Arizona, before calling Border Patrol. Her husband went outside, and according to the defense, fired warning shots into the air.
Law enforcement responded, and hours passed before Kelly called for help again to report finding Gabriel Cuen-Buitimea’s body on his property on Jan. 30, 2023.
Kelly was charged with first-degree premeditated murder and held on $1 million bond for weeks as the case gained national scrutiny. The highest charge was later downgraded to second-degree murder.
Last week, Santa Cruz County Det. Mario Barba testified that he accompanied Hathaway to Mexico to interview Daniel Ramirez, the prosecution’s key witness who claims to have seen first-hand when Buitimea was shot on Kelly’s ranch before fleeing across the border. Weeks after the shooting, Hathaway arranged a meeting with Ramirez at a hotel in Nogales, Mexico, and though the sheriff interviewed him for about 40 minutes, he only recorded about six minutes, Barba said. The detective said Ramirez “couldn’t cross into the United States legally” to be interviewed.
“You could have spoken to Mexican officials to arrange something? Correct?” Kelly’s defense attorney, Brenna Larkin, asked.
Santa Cruz County Chief Deputy Attorney Kim Hunley listens as she plays a 911 call for the jury during George Alan Kelly’s trial at Santa Cruz County Superior Court on Friday, March 22, 2024, in Nogales, Arizona. (Angela Gervasi/Nogales International via AP, Pool)
“Correct,” the detective responded.
“And you didn’t do that. Did you?” Larkin said.
Barba replied, “No.”
Taking the stand earlier in the trial, Ramirez admitted that he previously carried drugs across the border before and had been deported several times.
The defense believes that the people contacted by the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office to conduct their investigation into Kelly’s case are related or connected to the Sinaloa Cartel, Martinelli said.
“The Sinaloa Cartel and Manos Malas, an organized crime ring which is in league with Sinaloa, do not allow independent drug smugglers. So you have to be associated with the cartel,” Martinelli said. “When they meet with him, that was actually facilitated by another convicted, twice convicted felon — one of his last convictions that he did prison time for was bringing guns across the border.”
George Alan Kelly, right, exits the Santa Cruz County Courthouse with defense attorney Kathy Lowthorp, Friday, March 22, 2024, in Nogales, Arizona. (Angela Gervasi/Nogales International via AP, Pool)
ARIZONA RANCHER GEORGE ALAN KELLY JURY TO TAKE FIELD TRIP TO BORDERLAND PROPERTY AT CENTER OF MURDER TRIAL
“The false narrative is out there that Buitimea and all these so-called witnesses are people seeking the American dream. Migrants seeking the American Dream do not smuggle drugs across the border or smuggle weapons across the border. And again, that is an indication of cartel influence, cartel membership,” the consultant said. “That has nothing to do with the narrative that the prosecutor and the sheriff were putting out there, that Mr. Buitimea was an innocent migrant seeking the American Dream.”
While with Barba in Mexico, Hathway introduced himself as the supervising investigator in the case, Martinelli told Fox News Digital, meaning “he is the supervising investigator in an international investigation that he initiated in a foreign country.” The defense believes that was a violation of U.S. State Department protocols, as well as Mexican law created by Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and the country’s legislature providing guidelines for U.S. authorities while conducting criminal investigations in Mexico.
George Alan Kelly listens to the prosecution during opening arguments at Santa Cruz County Superior Court Friday, March 22, 2024 in Nogales, Arizona. (Angela Gervasi/Nogales International, via AP)
“There is no evidence he ever advised the Mexican government or requested permission to enter the country to conduct an international homicide investigation involving Mexican nationals. And that includes the federal police. The Mexican federal police,” Martinelli said. “What we want to find out today is how that meeting came about. How did they cross into Mexico? You know, did they drive there in a marked car? Were they in uniform with, you know with their, even plainclothes, with their badges and firearms? How did that take place? Because procedurally, that’s a huge thing.”
Also on camera in the same YouTube video, Hathaway said that the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that Border Patrol can search, detain and interrogate anybody within 100 miles of the U.S. international border.
“And the Supreme Court had called that extended border search authority,” Hathway said. “To me, it’s a real problem to have a policy like that within the U.S. government because this is supposed to be America. This is supposed to be a free country, right? I mean, you shouldn’t have people who can pull you over for no reason like they’re the Gestapo or something like that. For me, that’s a problem.”
Hathaway also went on to criticize the sheriffs of other neighboring counties for decrying the border crisis.
“He minimizes the victimization of migrants coming across the border. The rape of migrants. The murder and the robberies of migrants,” Martinelli said. “But at the same time, he is enjoying a financial grant from DHS to patrol the border with his deputies… He doesn’t have any problem taking money from the United States government for his deputies’ patrol.”
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Southwest
Missing 19-year-old Camila Mendoza Olmos believed to be ‘in imminent danger,’ Texas sheriff says
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Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar indicated that authorities believe that Camila Mendoza Olmos, a 19-year-old woman who went missing on Christmas Eve, is “in imminent danger.”
The FBI is supplying technical aid and the Homeland Security Department is keeping an eye on border crossings as well as international travel, Salazar indicated, according to ABC News.
“We definitely don’t want to miss anything,” he said, according to the outlet. “The ground search is somewhat limited to a couple of square miles. We’re also not ruling out that this case may take us outside the borders of the continental United States.”
TEXAS 19-YEAR-OLD CAMILA MENDOZA OLMOS VANISHES OUTSIDE HER HOME ON CHRISTMAS EVE
Camila Mendoza Olmos, 19, was last seen outside her home in San Antonio, Texas, on Christmas Eve, authorities said. (Bexar County Sheriff’s Office)
The sheriff confirmed to ABC that the young woman had not been detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which he verified despite Olmos being an American citizen.
“That was a personal concern. So, I had it checked to make sure that there were no stops, no detentions, and that she’s not somewhere in a federal detention facility. That is something we needed to check,” Salazar noted, according to the outlet.
Fox News Digital reached out to the sheriff’s office for comment.
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Camila Mendoza Olmos was last seen around 6:58 a.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2025, in northwest Bexar County, Texas. (Bexar County Sheriff’s Office)
A December 24 Bexar County Sheriff’s Office Facebook post noted, “Camila was last seen leaving her residence at approximately 6:58 a.m. on Wednesday, December 24, 2025. Video footage from that time shows an unknown individual, believed to be Camila, searching inside her vehicle for an unidentified item. Moments later, the footage ends. It is believed that she left the residence on foot, as her vehicle remained at the location.”
The post notes, “The only items known to be on her person are her car key and possibly her driver’s license. Camila’s mother stated that Camila normally goes for a morning walk; however, she became concerned when Camila did not return within a reasonable period of time.”
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The Bexar County Sheriff’s Office said, “It is believed that she left the residence on foot, as her vehicle remained at the location.” (Google Maps)
The sheriff’s office indicated in the post that she had been “Last seen wearing: Baby blue with Black Hoodie, Baby blue Pajama bottoms, White shoes.”
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Southwest
DAVID MARCUS: At AmericaFest, two legacies hang in the balance, Charlie Kirk’s and Donald Trump’s
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There are two legacies hanging in the balance this weekend in Phoenix as Turning Point USA puts on its annual AmericaFest conference, first is its late founder, Charlie Kirk’s and the other is President Donald Trump’s.
At the convention center here in Arizona, as many as 25,000 attendees are expected to gather to celebrate the life of Kirk, who was tragically murdered just months ago, but also to try to chart a course forward for the movement he marshaled.
Arriving a bit late on Thursday, I was greeted by Lucas, a TPUSA employee from Detroit in his mid-twenties. He was a picture-perfect ambassador, a clean-cut kid who is eschewing his generation’s almost epic bout of despair and instead leaning in to create positive change.
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“The energy has been amazing,” he told me, referring to the huge upswing in interest in TPUSA since Kirk’s horrible murder.
“Not the way you’d want it to happen,” I somewhat darkly noted, but Lucas said, “You have to find the silver lining, I guess.”
Lucas and the hundreds like him are honestly an inspiration, while so many of their generation are out of shape from toe to top, they see a bright future for America that so many of us in advanced years have long ago forgotten.
But do not get the impression that at AmFest this year all is hugs and kumbaya. Iin fact, what you will find here are the early stages of a war to define what Donald Trump’s legacy, and the legacy of his MAGA movement will be.
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Thursday night’s lineup on the big stage was a potent mix, featuring both Ben Shapiro of the Daily Wire and Tucker Carlson, whose current feud over Israel has become a bit more than nasty.
I won’t litigate the feud here, it’s all on video after all, but the broader point is that some lines are being drawn ahead of the first presidential race in a while, in 2028, that presumably will not include the name Trump on the ballot.
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At Amfest, we finally have more than tea leaves to tell us what the conservative movement after Trump and Kirk will look like — we have the actual tea, and a few stains to boot.
The factions are becoming clear, Charlie Kirk’s widow Erika, in her speech Thursday enthusiastically endorsed Vice President JD Vance for president, while Shapiro said, more moderately, that Vance would have to build his own coalition.
Is Shapiro lining up a movement behind a potential candidate like Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz who has not been a member of Donald Trump’s, let’s face it, somewhat obsequious court of the Oval Office, and if so, can Erika Kirk’s power thwart such a play?
This weekend in Phoenix has assembled the people with the strongest claim to the MAGA movement — a once disparate band of misfits whose allegiance to the “orange man” who kept winning put them at the forefront of American power and politics.
Many of the grave and profound conservative voices and pundits of old, who give no truck to the New Right have fled ship for think tanks or psuedo-right-wing journals that exist only to destroy Trump and his movement, but they are not the vanguard. The real fight is here.
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What plays out over this weekend in Phoenix will have profound implications not just for next year’s midterms, but for the presidential race in 2028.
President Donald Trump shakes hands with Charlie Kirk, founder and executive director of Turning Point USA, during a panel discussion at the Generation Next Summit at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on March 22, 2018, in Washington. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
Legacies are matters of the future, and it is only the young attendees at Amfest who will see the longest lasting fruits of the American conservative movement — a movement still firmly shaped by Charlie Kirk.
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It is both remarkable and stark to see the myriad and often giant images of their Charlie around the convention center amid his earthly absence. Each image is a reminder both of his life’s great success and its tragic end.
But Charlie Kirk’s legacy will not be a statue, or a plaque. His legacy will live in the hearts of the young kids assembled in Phoenix this weekend. Maybe they are naïve. Maybe they are not withered and weathered by life’s brutal storms. God bless them for their hope. We could use a bit more of it.
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Two theme parkgoers were trapped more than 100 feet in the air for more than 30 minutes this week after a roller coaster in Texas malfunctioned.
The Circuit Breaker roller coaster at the Circuit of the Americas near Austin unexpectedly stopped at the first drop, leaving Matthew Cantu, 24, and Nicholas Sanchez, 20, dangling at a 90-degree angle Wednesday night, KXAN-TV reported, citing a publicist representing the two men.
“For more than 30 minutes after the ride stopped, family members reported receiving no clear updates, while witnesses said staff provided conflicting explanations, including comments that the riders ‘weren’t strapped in currently,’” the publicist’s news release said, People magazine reported.
UNIVERSAL ORLANDO THEME PARK COASTER DEATH RULED ACCIDENTAL
Construction continues on the Circuit Breaker, the first tilt roller coaster in Texas. (Jay Janner/The Austin American-Statesman via Getty Images)
“A sensor triggered a ride delay,” the Circuit of the Americas told Fox News Digital in a statement Saturday. “It was resolved, and the ride proceeded without incident.
“As with all amusement attractions of this sort, delays occasionally occur. We regret the inconvenience and are glad that out of the 25,000 people that have ridden the coaster, only two have this badge of courage.”
The Circuit Breaker is Texas’ first “tilt” roller coaster, which means the track tilts 90 degrees for a nearly vertical drop during the ride.
IMPLOSION OF WORLD’S TALLEST ROLLER COASTER KINGDA KA CAUGHT ON CAMERA DURING PLANNED SIX FLAGS DEMOLITION
The ride opened as a preview in October and will officially open next year, according to KVUE-TV.
Austin-Travis County EMS responded to the incident before 10 p.m. Wednesday, evaluating one of the men who refused medical attention, KVUE reported.
Cedar Point in Ohio opened its new Siren’s Curse roller coaster this summer. (Akron Beacon Journal/Imagn)
Fox News Digital has reached out to the Austin-Travis County EMS for comment.
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Another tilt roller coaster, known as the Siren’s Curse at Cedar Point in Ohio, has similarly malfunctioned multiple times since it opened this summer.
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