Southwest
Arizona rancher's defense expert rips $1M 'political prosecution' by 'ethically bankrupt' officials
Before prosecutors decide on Monday afternoon whether they’ll pursue a second trial against Arizona rancher George Alan Kelly, a criminologist consulting for the defense told Fox News Digital that the state has already spent upwards of $1 million in pursuit of this “political prosecution,” drawing from taxpayer dollars in the state’s poorest county in an area situated along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Dr. Ron Martinelli, a criminologist working pro bono for Kelly’s defense team, accused Santa Cruz County Attorney George Silva and Sheriff David Hathaway of “extreme confirmation bias” in their handling of the case, which centered on the death of Gabriel Cuen-Buitimea, a Mexican national found fatally shot on Jan. 30, 2023, after Kelly called Border Patrol for help from his 170-acre cattle ranch outside Nogales, Arizona.
“The actors in this county and the county prosecutors and the sheriff in this county, and the investigators in this case stand out to me to be the most morally and ethically bankrupt people I’ve ever encountered in my 50-year career,” Martinelli told Fox News Digital last week. “It was singular in the way that they looked at this case and the way they handled this case.”
Fox News Digital has reached out to Silva and Hathaway for comment.
“This was a political prosecution,” Martinelli added. “They had zero forensic evidence. They had tons of exculpatory information and evidence supporting Mr. Kelly’s innocence in this. Yet they continued to push forward and with their false narratives to convict this man. I would suggest, this is my opinion, that they used lawfare against him. I mean, they didn’t even have a motive that they were able to establish in this case.”
Silva, Hathaway and Michael Jette, a contracted prosecutor, were all absent from court on April 22, when Arizona Superior Court Judge Thomas Fink declared a mistrial, Martinelli said.
Jette had delivered the closing argument days earlier. Silva had opted to have Santa Cruz County Deputy Attorney Kimberly Hunley spearhead the state’s case during the month-long trial.
ARIZONA RANCHER GEORGE ALAN KELLY DEFENSE SAYS ‘LONE HOLDOUT’ JUROR BLOCKED ACQUITTAL, STATE WEIGHS 2ND TRIAL
“Mr. Silva, who’s running for office, and also the sheriff, Mr. Hathaway, running for office. Who were the two people?” Martinelli said. “Who didn’t show up for the last day, the most important day of the trial? The two people that we believe are the moving forces [behind Kelly’s prosecution]. Why are these people that were pushing this case absent on the last day of trial?”
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)
“If the county prosecutor, for God knows whatever reason, wants to bring this case back into trial, I will promise you… I will throw personally every single resource of Martinelli and Associates Justice and Forensic Consultant into this case. We held back. I won’t hold back any longer,” Martinelli added. “They can’t fix it. They can’t remediate their witnesses. They made serious errors of judgment.
“And this trial, we believe, cost the citizens of Santa Cruz County over $1 million and thousands of man-hours in this case, and they can’t fix it,” he said. “Santa Cruz County is the most impoverished county in Arizona. The public – does the public want to pay for this to go again? And I guarantee you, it will end up, most likely with a full acquittal the next time around.”
The jury remained deadlocked and therefore unable to reach a unanimous decision to convict Kelly of second-degree murder or any of the lower counts of manslaughter, negligent homicide or aggravated assault with a deadly weapon following more than 15 hours of deliberation. Fink scheduled a status hearing for 1:30 p.m. Monday, when the state is expected to reveal whether they want to reset the matter for a second trial.
The defense said that seven jurors wanted to acquit Kelly, but one “lone holdout” was unwavering in wanting to convict the elderly rancher despite the evidence and testimony.
Martinelli pointed to prosecutors’ “false narrative” during the trial that Cuen-Buitimea was an “unarmed migrant pursuing the American Dream.” The defense claimed that prosecutors failed to prove through forensics, ballistics or otherwise that Cuen-Buitimea was shot by Kelly’s gun, maintaining that the rancher only fired warning shots into the air from his patio earlier that day. The fatal bullet was never recovered from the scene.
Kelly’s wife, 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.
George Alan Kelly listens to closing arguments in Santa Cruz County Superior Court, April 18, 2024, in Nogales, Arizona. (Angela Gervasi/Nogales International, via AP, Pool)
Martinelli also excoriated Hathaway’s testimony about having crossed the border to Mexico weeks after the shooting on Kelly’s ranch to interview Daniel Ramirez, a Honduran man who prosecutors claim was the sole sight witness to Cuen-Buitimea’s death. Defense attorneys said, based on Ramirez’s own testimony, he was not there.
JUDGE DECLARES MISTRIAL IN CASE OF ARIZONA RANCHER CHARGED WITH MURDER OF MEXICAN NATIONAL ON BORDER PROPERTY
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. According to Martinelli, prosecutors also offered no evidence contrary to the defense theory that a rip crew, a gang of bandits, sometimes cartel affiliated, could have shot Cuen-Buitimea and robbed him.
Martinelli told Fox News Digital that the county attorney’s office was forced to reveal to the defense team that Rodriguez is a twice convicted felon – the first 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.”
“There was definite cartel influence throughout this case that continually was obstructed by the county prosecutors,” Martinelli told Fox News Digital. “There is a war going on across the American border. This is a different type of dynamic, where the people are actually being personally impacted. These ranchers, across this border, with the trespassing, you know, armed drug cartel and human trafficking.”
“Just imagine being on an isolated ranch in your 70s. You and your wife. And you are frequently seeing armed incursions on your ranch,” he added. “It’s a war. We try to fight this war in an ethical, moral and legal way of doing it. But we can’t be obstructed by a degraded criminal justice and law enforcement system. We can’t allow that to happen in the United States of America. We want to be a free country.”
Prosecutor Michael Jette addresses jurors during closing arguments in Santa Cruz County Superior Court, April 18, 2024. (Angela Gervasi/Nogales International, via AP, Pool)
Martinelli also threatened to bring a complaint against Hathaway, who was pressed by the defense for having been 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 borderland neighborhood where his family has resided since the 1800s.
In the video, Hathaway references the Kelly case and asserts that the rancher wanted to “go hunt me some Mexicans.” The sheriff also compared Border Patrol and the sheriffs of surrounding counties to the “Gestapo,” adding that Border Patrol has committed “unmentionable atrocities that they’ve never been prosecuted for.”
“And at the same time that he criticizes the other law enforcement agencies for seeking out money and, quote, ‘sensationalizing crime at the border,’ he’s so hypocritical because he has applied and received grant money for Santa Cruz County to interdict drugs and human trafficking in his own county,” Martinelli said. “Whether or not the county prosecutor in this case decides to move forward with further prosecution against Mr. Kelly, I will personally, and I won’t be the only one – there are going to be a number of law enforcement sources that are going to write letters of complaint to the Arizona Commission of Peace Officer Standards and Training.”
He also vowed complaints to the Department of Justice, Santa Cruz County grand jury and the Arizona Board of Corrections for alleged violations of Kelly’s civil rights while he was held for weeks last year on $1 million cash bond in connection to the later-downgraded first-degree premeditated murder charge.
GoFundMe booted Kelly’s defense fund from the platform before GiveSendGo, a Christian crowd-sourcing alternative, picked up fundraising for the elderly rancher.
“All of these agencies need to audit the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Department, both their CID and their corrections division,” Martinelli said. “People in Santa Cruz County are afraid. Even though Sheriff David Hathaway and the prosecutor try to obstruct and preclude people from knowing that there were serious problems in Santa Cruz County on the border. There is absolute cartel influence in Santa Cruz County. The people know it, they’re scared of it. And now they’re really concerned about the people, like the sheriff and the county prosecutor, that they voted into office to protect them, and they’re not protecting them.”
Martinelli added that the Kellys have used up about $2 million in personal funding and funding from their legal defense fund on GiveSendGo, asking for additional donations and “prayers” for the couple.
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Southwest
Arizona governor vetoes Charlie Kirk memorial license plate, sparking GOP outrage: ‘This bill falls short’
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Democratic Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs is facing fierce backlash after vetoing a bill that would have created a specialty license plate honoring slain Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, a move Republicans are blasting as a stunning act of partisanship after his assassination.
Kirk, who was assassinated while speaking at a Sept. 10 Turning Point USA event at Utah Valley University, lived in Arizona with his wife, Erika, and two children.
The proposed specialty plate, referred to as the “Charlie Kirk memorial” plate or the “Conservative grassroots network special plate,” featured a photo of the late Kirk and the TPUSA logo in front of an American flag background.
Below the license plate number were the words “FOR CHARLIE.”
A custom Arizona license plate, featuring a Turning Point USA and Charlie Kirk design, shared by state Sen. Jake Hoffman. (Senator Jake Hoffman via X)
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Of the $25 fee required for the plate, $17 would be an annual donation deposited into the Conservative Grassroots Network Special Plate Fund, according to the legislation.
While the recipient of the Grassroots Network Special Plate Fund was not explicitly designated as TPUSA in the bill, it noted the director of the fund would allocate revenue annually to a nonprofit organization, founded in 2012, that focuses on restoring traditional values, maintaining a grassroots activist network on high school and college campuses in Arizona, and assisting college students with voter registration and absentee ballots.
People gather at a memorial to mourn Turning Point USA Founder Charlie Kirk outside Turning Point USA headquarters Sept. 12, 2025, in Phoenix. (Charly Triballeau/AFP via Getty Images)
TPUSA, founded by Kirk in 2012, is well known for its grassroots activist networks on high school and college campuses. It is headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona.
The $25 fee and annual $17 donation are consistent with the fees for the other 109 nonprofit license plates offered by the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT).
‘WE ARE NOT AFRAID’: ERIKA KIRK VOWS TPUSA WILL CONTINUE CAMPUS DEBATES NATIONWIDE
The state Senate passed the bill, 16-2, with the House of Representatives voting 31-23 in favor prior to Hobbs’ veto.
Specialty plates in Arizona are authorized by the legislature and sent to the governor to be signed into law. They have been offered since 1989.
In a letter explaining the veto, Hobbs cited concerns with the bill “bring[ing] people together,” claiming it would “insert politics into a function of government that should remain nonpartisan.”
Democratic Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs is facing fierce backlash after vetoing a bill that would have created a specialty license plate honoring slain Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk. (Rebecca Noble/Getty Images)
ERIKA KIRK BATTLES FOR CAMERAS IN COURTROOM WHILE EXPANDING TPUSA CHAPTERS IN NEW STATE PARTNERSHIP
“Charlie Kirk’s assassination is tragic and a horrifying act of violence,” Hobbs wrote. “In America, we resolve our political differences at the ballot box. No matter who it targets, political violence puts us all in harm’s way and damages our sacred democratic institutions.
“I will continue working toward solutions that bring people together, but this bill falls short of that standard.”
Specialty license plates with political interests already approved by the state include the “Choose Life” Plate, which benefits the Arizona Life Coalition and its mission to promote anti-abortion advocacy and education; the “In God We Trust” Plate, which benefits conservative Christian legal advocacy group Alliance Defending Freedom; and the Arizona Realtors’ “Homes for All” Plate, which funds affordable housing projects.
Charlie Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA, speaks during the Turning Point Action conference in 2023 in West Palm Beach, Fla. (Lynne Sladky/AP Photo)
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Another approved plate, “Alice Cooper’s Solid Rock Plate,” which benefits Solid Rock Teen Centers, features a portrait of the legendary musician, who has made political comments about social issues including gender identity.
Republican state Sen. Jake Hoffman, who sponsored the bill, posted a fiery statement on social media after the governor’s action, claiming her “grotesque partisanship knows no bounds.”
“Even in the wake of a global civil rights leader — an Arizona resident and her own constituent — being assassinated in broad daylight for his defense of the First Amendment, Hobbs couldn’t find the human decency to put her far-Left extremism aside simply to allow those how wish to honor him to do so,” Hoffman wrote. “Katie Hobbs will forever be known as a stain on the pages of Arizona’s story.”
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On Saturday, TPUSA COO Tyler Bowyer shared an X post that said, “Deport Katie Hobbs.”
TPUSA, Bowyer and Hobbs’ office did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s requests for comment.
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Southwest
Air Force veteran warns ‘cartels don’t collapse — they fracture’ after notorious drug lord killed
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Nearly two weeks after Mexican forces killed notorious cartel boss Ruben “El Mencho” Oseguera Cervantes, questions remain about how the powerful Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) will respond and whether the blow will meaningfully disrupt the flow of fentanyl into the United States.
Carlos De La Cruz, a 20-year U.S. Air Force veteran who deployed after 9/11 and later served along the southern border, told Fox News the cartel leader’s death marked a major victory, but warned Americans should not mistake it for the end of the fight.
“When I say that this is a significant win, I mean it,” De La Cruz said. “El Mencho ran one of the most violent cartels on the planet.”
Oseguera, who rose to prominence in the post–El Chapo era, oversaw CJNG’s aggressive expansion across Mexico and into key trafficking corridors feeding U.S. drug markets. Under his leadership, the cartel became a central architect of fentanyl and methamphetamine trafficking and drew a $15 million U.S. reward for information leading to his capture.
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Smoke rises from burning vehicles after a military operation that a government source said killed Mexican drug lord Nemesio Oseguera, known as “El Mencho,” in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, on Feb. 22, 2026. (Screen grab obtained from a social media video. @morelifediares via Instagram/YouTube via Reuters)
But De La Cruz cautioned that removing a cartel kingpin does not dismantle the organization.
“Cartels don’t collapse when you just cut the head off — they fracture,” he said. “And part of that fracture is going to see a lot of short-term violence while all these factions fight over territory.”
Following Oseguera’s killing on Feb. 22, the U.S. State Department issued travel alerts in multiple Mexican states, citing road blockages and criminal activity tied to security operations, underscoring concerns about instability in the aftermath.
Drawing on his military background studying enemy command structures, De La Cruz described the cartel fight as a long-term campaign requiring sustained pressure.
A mughsot of Ruben “Nemesio” Oseguera Cervantes, known as “El Mencho,” beside graffiti depicting the letters of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, covering the facade of an abandoned home in El Limoncito, in the Michoacan state of Mexico. (Eduardo Verdugo/AP Images; Drug Enforcement Administration)
“You don’t win a war with just one airstrike,” he said. “The goal is dismantling the networks and going after their financing.”
De La Cruz, who is running for Congress and is the brother of Texas Republican Rep. Monica De La Cruz, argued that CJNG’s Foreign Terrorist Organization designation gives U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies expanded tools to target cartel infrastructure and financial pipelines.
KAROLINE LEAVITT WARNS CARTELS TO ‘NOT LAY A FINGER’ ON AMERICANS OR PAY ‘SEVERE CONSEQUENCES’
A soldier stands guard by a charred vehicle after it was set on fire in Cointzio, Mexico, Sunday, Feb. 22, 2026, after the cartel leader’s death. (Armando Solis/AP Photo)
But he stressed that the fentanyl crisis should be viewed as a domestic security emergency, not a distant foreign problem.
“For decades, they were using their territories as launching pads to pump chemical weapons into America — because that’s exactly what fentanyl is,” he said.
De La Cruz, who said he worked side by side with Customs agents while deployed to the border, warned that cartel networks are highly adaptive and that any gains could be temporary without sustained follow-through.
SEN MULLIN URGES SPRING BREAKERS TO CANCEL TRIPS TO MEXICO AMID COUNTRY’S VIOLENCE: ‘NO ONE SHOULD BE GOING’
Smoke rises after violence hit Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. (Courtesy of Scott Posilkin)
“These networks, they’re going to adjust. They’re going to adapt and they’re going to adapt quickly,” he said. “We have to continue to go after the money launderers, especially on our side of the border, because that’s the full fight.”
While Oseguera’s death removes one of the most dominant figures in Mexico’s criminal underworld, De La Cruz said the mission is personal.
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“I took an oath to defend this country,” he said. “And I intend to stand by that oath.”
Fox News Digital’s Greg Wehner contributed to this report.
Stepheny Price covers crime, including missing persons, homicides and migrant crime. Send story tips to stepheny.price@fox.com.
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TUCSON, Ariz. — More than five weeks after the suspected abduction of Nancy Guthrie — the 84-year-old mother of “Today” co-host Savannah Guthrie — Arizona authorities say cadaver dogs used earlier in the investigation are not currently being deployed as the search continues.
The elder Guthrie is believed to have been kidnapped from her home in the Catalina Foothills in northern Tucson around 2:30 a.m. on Feb. 1.
While no suspects have been publicly identified, and she has not been found, cadaver dogs had been deployed earlier in the case, according to Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos. They have not been visible in weeks.
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A member of the Pima County Sheriff’s Office remains outside of Nancy Guthrie’s home, Monday, Feb. 9, 2026 in Tucson, Ariz. (AP Photo/Ty ONeil; Nathan Congleton/NBC via Getty Images)
“They are available if needed in the future,” he told Fox News Digital.
There are a number of reasons not to be using cadaver dogs at this stage in the investigation, according to Betsy Brantner Smith, a retired police sergeant and spokeswoman for the National Police Association.
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Savannah Guthrie visits the Today show at Rockefeller Plaza in New York on Thursday, March 5, 2026. (Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)
One would be if there’s credible information that Guthrie is still alive.
“Anything is possible,” Nanos told Fox News Digital last week, adding that he would not discuss specific leads or evidence in the case.
DNA IS STILL PENDING AS VOLUNTEERS FIND ANOTHER GLOVE IN THE SEARCH FOR NANCY GUTHRIE
Brantner Smith, who is not involved in the case, said departments may hold back K-9 resources for several reasons. Those could be that authorities don’t have a good idea of where to search, they think she might be concealed in a place where dogs would have a hard time detecting her, or they believe she’s been taken to Mexico, according to Brantner Smith.
Law enforcement agents walk around the neighborhood where Annie Guthrie, whose mother Nancy Guthrie has been missing for more than a week, lives just outside Tucson, Ariz. (Ty ONeil/AP Photo)
“I do believe that the sheriff’s department has much more information that they are not releasing to the public,” she told Fox News Digital. “And I’m not sure at this point why that would be, unless they have a solid suspect and don’t want to tip them off.”
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Most departments, including the Pima County Sheriff’s, don’t have their own cadaver dogs and borrow them from state and federal authorities or neighboring jurisdictions.
An investigator looks inside a culvert in the neighborhood where Annie Guthrie, whose mother Nancy Guthrie has been missing for more than a week, lives just outside Tucson, Ariz., on Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026. (Ty ONeil/AP Photo)
In Guthrie’s case, the sheriff’s department sought K-9 assistance from the local Border Patrol office earlier in the investigation.
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PCSD deferred further comment on the K-9s to Customs and Border Protection, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A member of the Pima County Sheriff’s Office walks around Nancy Guthrie’s home on Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026 in Tucson, Ariz. (Ty ONeil/AP Photo)
The biggest lead so far has been Nest camera video showing a masked intruder on Guthrie’s doorstep the morning of her abduction.
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He is described as about 5 feet, 9 inches to 5 feet, 10 inches tall and of medium build.
Nancy Guthrie, 84, has been missing from her Arizona home since Jan. 31, 2026. (Don Arnold/WireImage/Getty Images)
He was wearing a black Ozark Trail backpack.
Authorities have said they won’t consider the case cold until they run out of viable leads to follow up on — and tens of thousands have come in so far.
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Savannah Guthrie has asked anyone with information to dial 1-800-CALL-FBI.
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There’s a combined reward of more than $1.2 million for information that leads to her mother’s recovery.
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