Southwest
Judge declares mistrial in case of Arizona rancher charged with murder of Mexican national on border property
A jury was unable to reach a verdict in the case of Arizona rancher George Alan Kelly, who was accused of second-degree murder in connection to the death of a Mexican national found fatally shot on his borderland ranch in January 2023.
The jury began deliberating April 18. After days of being unable to reach a verdict, the judge overseeing the trial declared a mistrial on Monday.
The case centered around the death of Mexican national Gabriel Cuen-Buitimea, who was found shot to death on Kelly’s 170-acre cattle ranch near Keno Springs outside Nogales, Arizona, on Jan. 30, 2023.
Kelly’s defense has countered the prosecution’s argument that Cuen-Buitimea was an unarmed migrant and has suggested cartel influence mired the death investigation.
ARIZONA RANCHER DEFENSE CONSULTANT CLAIMS ‘CARTEL INFLUENCE’ IN MURDER PROBE, RIPS SHERIFF’S PAST COMMENTS
George Alan Kelly enters court for his preliminary hearing in Nogales Justice Court in Nogales, Arizona.
“Long story short, this is simply not somebody who’s looking for the American dream. There’s no evidence that this person is here for those kinds of benign purposes,” Kelly’s defense attorney, Brenna Larkin, said during her closing argument on Thursday. “And we bring that up, not, you know, to be judgmental about Gabriel or to not have compassion for him. But when people are involved in a criminal lifestyle, it’s dangerous. It’s more inherently dangerous than simply being a migrant who’s coming here. So it’s relevant for that reason.”
Cuen-Buitimea had illegally entered the country multiple times previously and had been deported as recently as 2016.
Over the course of weeks, jurors heard testimony regarding where and at what distance Kelly was standing when prosecutors argued he fatally shot Cuen-Buitimea, as well as the motivation for the gunshots.
The defense maintained Kelly only fired warning shots into the air from his patio earlier in the day, and his 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.
The fatal bullet was never recovered from the scene. A criminologist working pro bono as a consultant for Kelly’s defense, Dr. Ron Martinelli, previously told Fox News Digital that none of the state’s witnesses in the trial had provided any rebuttal testimony against the defense theory that a rip crew — a gang of bandits, sometimes cartel-affiliated — could have fatally shot Cuen-Buitimea and robbed him.
ARIZONA RANCHER GEORGE ALAN KELLY’S WIFE TESTIFIES IN MURDER TRIAL, DESCRIBES ARMED MEN NEAR BORDERLANDS HOME
Santa Cruz County Sheriff David Hathaway was pressed by the defense about an online video showing him speculating that Kelly wanted to “go hunt me some Mexicans.”
“You told Big Super, ‘We caught this rancher shooting at migrants’ and then you said that ‘there are people who want to come hunt some Mexicans’ — you made that statement?” a defense attorney asked Hathaway on Wednesday. Big Super is the name of the real estate YouTube personality whose video Hathaway was featured in touring his borderlands neighborhood.
Santa Cruz County Superior Court Judge Thomas Fink listens to opening arguments in the trial of George Alan Kelly. (Angela Gervasi/Nogales International via AP)
“Yeah I did,’ Hathway replied. “I just did a colloquial, ‘There are some people that want to go hunt them some Mexicans.’ Yeah I did make that statement.”
Martinelli also alleged to Fox News Digital that Hathaway broke U.S. State Department protocol and Mexican law by arranging an unauthorized meeting to interview Daniel Ramirez in Nogales, Mexico, weeks after the shooting. The prosecution argued that Ramirez was the sole witness to Cuen-Buitimea’s shooting death and fled across the border afterward.
Ramirez testified that he previously carried drugs across the border, though not on the day of the January 2023 shooting.
The defense argued that based on Ramirez’s own testimony, it did not seem he was even present that day. The jury was able to make a field trip to Kelly’s ranch to get a lay of the land.
“The only conclusion that can be reached based on Daniel’s description of this property is that he wasn’t there,” Larkin said. “You cannot find Mr. Kelly guilty of aggravated assault against Daniel because Daniel was not there. And you cannot find him guilty of any of the offenses, second degree murder or lesser included, because they did not prove that Alan shot this person, and they have to prove it.”
Larkin told jurors that Kelly was confronted with “a threat to his life” and “had a rifle pointed at him,” meaning that he would have been justified in using deadly physical force.
But even so, the rancher “didn’t use deadly physical force,” Larkin said in her closing argument. “He fired shots up into the air, over the tree, over where these people were to get the threat to stop.”
George Alan Kelly listens to the prosecution during opening arguments at Santa Cruz County Superior Court. (Angela Gervasi/Nogales International, via AP)
“The law does not say that you cannot use lesser force to defend yourself. The law does not say that when you’re out in the middle of nowhere and you folks were out there. This is not downtown Nogales. This is not a populated area. This is isolated. It is empty,” Larkin told the jury. “He can fire warning shots to protect himself and to protect his wife. And that’s exactly what he did. That’s exactly what any man who cares about his wife and his home should do in this situation when faced with the threat that he was faced with.”
In the state’s closing argument, prosecutor Mike Jette maintained to the jury that there’s “no justification” for Kelly having seen “two unarmed men walking two fences away” and “pulling out your AK-47, stepping on the patio, no verbal warning and shooting nine times.”
“He escalates the situation. His wife is fine,” Jette said Thursday. “You do not have the right to use deadly physical force to protect a person who didn’t need protecting. You don’t have the right to use deadly force when there is no threat to home or yard, and you don’t have the right to initiate, instigate or escalate with deadly force. No right whatsoever.”
“Gabriel and Daniel were shot at. Gabriel is dead, killed by a high-powered weapon, an AK-47. Entry wound, exit wound lined up with the defendant’s property,” the prosecutor said. “Steps out, no verbal warning. Defendant shot his AK nine times. Shell casings prove it. Ejection pattern proves where he was standing. Position and orientation of Gabriel’s body proves where the shot comes from.”
Jette closed by telling the jury if they’re not convinced on the second-degree murder charge, they can still convict Kelly on the lesser charges of manslaughter, negligent homicide or aggravated assault.
Kelly made national headlines last year when he was held on a $1 million bond on a first-degree murder charge for several weeks. The highest charge was later downgraded to second-degree murder.
The rancher rejected a deal from prosecutors earlier this year that would have reduced the charge to one count of negligent homicide if he would agree to plead guilty.
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Southwest
Arizona rancher says he stared down barrel of AK-47 when he fired warning shots 'over the trees'
Arizona rancher George Alan Kelly said men came towards his home with an AK-47 aimed at him the day he was arrested for murder.
“He turned towards me … pointed the AK at me. And that’s when — everybody says was the dumbest thing I ever did — they said you should have shot him because he was getting ready to shoot you,” Kelly told NewsNation.
Instead, he told the news outlet that he “shot over the tree, over the top of his head, and thank God him and the other guys ran.”
Later that day — Jan. 30, 2023 — he found a body and called the sheriff’s department. Responding officers accused Kelly of fatally shooting the victim, an illegal immigrant, and hauled him away in cuffs.
ARIZONA RANCHER’S DEFENSE EXPERT RIPS $1M ‘POLITICAL PROSECUTION’ BY ETHICALLY BANKRUPT’ OFFICIALS
George Alan Kelly enters court for his preliminary hearing in Nogales Justice Court in Nogales, Arizona, on Feb. 22, 2023. (Mark Henle/The Arizona Republic via AP, Pool, File)
“He turned towards me … pointed the AK at me.”
His murder charge became the center of an already-contentious national debate about border security raging throughout the country, especially in states bordering Mexico.
“They accused me of shooting him,” Kelley told NewsNation in his first interview since he became a free man. “I said, ‘No, I didn’t shoot him.’ And they said, ‘Well, we think you did, and we’re arresting you for first-degree murder.’”
JUDGE DECLARES MISTRIAL IN CASE OF ARIZONA RANCHER CHARGED WITH MURDER OF MEXICAN NATIONAL ON BORDER PROPERTY
The 75-year-old man spent 22 days in jail, which he said was the worst experience of his life. “If hell is anything like that, I’m gonna do everything I can not to go,” Kelly said.
Seven jurors wanted to acquit Kelly, but one “lone holdout” was unwavering in wanting to convict the elderly rancher despite the evidence and testimony, according to the rancher’s lawyer.
The judge declared the case a mistrial in April, and prosecutors said they won’t have a retrial.
George Alan Kelly exits the Santa Cruz County Courthouse with defense attorney Kathy Lowthorp in Nogales, Arizona, on March 22. (Angela Gervasi/Nogales International via AP, Pool)
“If hell is anything like that, I’m gonna do everything I can not to go.”
The victim was identified as Gabriel Cuen-Buitimea, and prosecutors claimed he was unarmed.
But Kelly’s defense lawyers said prosecutors failed to prove Cuen-Buitimea was shot by Kelly’s gun. The forensics and the ballistics didn’t match Kelly’s gun, according to the defense.
ARIZONA RANCHER GEORGE ALAN KELLY DEFENSE SAYS ‘LONE HOLDOUT’ JUROR BLOCKED ACQUITTAL, STATE WEIGHS 2ND TRIAL
The fatal bullet was never recovered from the scene.
“I don’t feel that I was treated fairly in the investigation,” Kelly said. “I think I was arrested without cause, without probable cause.”
Judge Thomas Fink (right) walks out of the courtroom during proceedings in the trial of rancher George Kelly. (Fox News)
WATCH JUDGE WALK OUT:
Kelly said he feared for his wife’s safety and his own. The rancher’s wife, Wanda Kelly, testified during the trial that they were sitting on their patio when they saw armed men dressed in camouflage and carrying rifles and backpacks walking about 100 feet from their home.
ARIZONA RANCHER DEFENSE CONSULTANT CLAIMS ‘CARTEL INFLUENCE’ IN MURDER PROBE, RIPS SHERIFF’S PAST COMMENTS
Dr. Ron Martinelli, a criminologist working pro bono for Kelly’s defense team, accused the prosecutors of “extreme confirmation bias.”
“Just imagine being on an isolated ranch in your 70s. You and your wife. And you are frequently seeing armed incursions on your ranch,” Martinelli told Fox News Digital in a previous interview.
“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.”
Now that the trial is over, Kelly and his wife want to “start life over again,” but it’s difficult after a costly trial.
Santa Cruz County Superior Court Judge Thomas Fink listens to opening arguments in the trial of George Alan Kelly in Nogales, Arizona, on March 22. (Angela Gervasi/Nogales International via AP, Pool)
“We have no funds,” Kelly said. “Our life savings, it’s gone.”
Martinelli said Kelly used about $2 million in personal funding and funding from their legal defense fund on GiveSendGo, an online fundraiser set up by the rancher’s wife.
George said that’s enough to keep them afloat for now, but he doesn’t know for how long.
“That cloud’s still over my head,” Kelly said. “It’s a long road, and we’re not out of danger yet, but we’re not giving up. I’m not going to let them beat me down.”
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Los Angeles, Ca
Family seeks help after 10-year-old Southern California boy diagnosed with rare brain cancer
A Riverside County mother is hoping to get some help from the public after her 10-year-old son has been diagnosed with a rare brain cancer.
Sebastian Guerra fell ill and found out he had the rare cancer on his 10th birthday in January.
“I’m just surprised that I have brain cancer,” the boy said to KTLA 5’s Jennifer McGraw. “I don’t think anybody knows how I got it.”
Guerra was diagnosed with diffuse midline glioma, which is the most aggressive type of brain cancer. The tumors are central nervous system-based, meaning they begin in the brain or spinal cord, according to the National Cancer Institute.
Data from the NCI shows that roughly 577 people are diagnosed across the country each year. Children who have diffuse midline glioma typically have a survival rate of one to two years.
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Sebastian Guerra, 10, has been diagnosed with a rare brain cancer. He and his mother spoke with KTLA on May 5, 2024. (KTLA) -
10-year-old Sebastian Guerra has been diagnosed with a rare brain cancer called diffuse midline glioma. The boy and his mother shared their story with KTLA on May 5, 2024. (KTLA) -
Sebastian Guerra, 10, has been diagnosed with a rare brain cancer. He and his mother spoke with KTLA on May 5, 2024. (KTLA) -
Sebastian Guerra, 10, has been diagnosed with a rare brain cancer. He and his mother spoke with KTLA on May 5, 2024. (KTLA)
Guerra’s mother, Katherine Mosier, says the family is trying everything it can to get the proper care for the boy. The only option available to them is radiation treatment.
Mosier is taken aback by how much fight, and patience her son is showing through treatment.
“Every single day, 30 times, sit still so we’re able to get him treatment,” she said. “He never complains, he just was like, ‘I can do this.’”
Mosier adds that it has been difficult for her to watch her child go through this serious health issue.
“There are moments in this journey, where as a parent, you feel like you have no control,” Mosier said. “It’s very hard.”
On top of the radiation treatment, Guerra is also going through a clinical trial to try and shrink the tumor. The family is hopeful that the trial will buy them some more time and for the cancer to go into remission.
Mosier says the financial burden has been heavy.
“Our government funding only provides 4% of funding to all pediatric cancer,” she said. “And about only 1% goes to pediatric brain tumors.”
Mosier adds that the lack of funding has resulted in fewer clinical trials being available to anyone who is diagnosed with the rare, aggressive cancer.
Guerra has been staying strong throughout treatments and is trying to remain optimistic that he will get better.
“I’m hoping for Jesus to fix my brain,” Guerra said.
The family has started an online fundraiser to help with the cost of medical bills and treatment for Guerra.
A second Boeing whistleblower has died unexpectedly as the company faces scrutiny over safety failures on its passenger jets.
Joshua Dean, a quality inspector for the Boeing supplier Spirit AeroSystems, died this week after a surprise infection left him in critical condition for days, according to his family.
The cause was Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, an antibiotic-resistant staph infection commonly known as MRSA, his aunt Carol Parsons told the Seattle Times, which first reported the death.
BOEING WHISTLEBLOWER’S MOM LAYS BLAME FOR SON’S DEATH DEEMED APPARENT SUICIDE IN NEW INTERVIEW
Boeing whistleblower Joshua Dean pictured in an undated family photo. The 44-year-old succumbed to an antibiotic-resistant staph infection. (Jenny Dean/Facebook)
The 44-year-old lost his job in 2023 and filed a retaliation complaint with federal labor officials, alleging that he was only fired for speaking out.
Dean had been deposed in connection with a shareholder lawsuit and had reported dangerous faults in components of Boeing’s 737 MAX plane — a model linked to a number of catastrophes in recent years.
The family shared in a Facebook post Monday that doctors warned them Dean had a “50/50 chance of living.”
A Boeing 737 MAX-10 lands over the Spirit AeroSystems logo during a flying display at the 54th International Paris Air Show at Le Bourget Airport near Paris on June 22, 2023. (Reuters/Benoit Tessier/File Photo)
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In describing the agonizing condition, they revealed the infection had “totally” taken over his lungs and asked for prayers. Days before his death, doctors were considering amputating his hands and feet, but he was too weak for surgery.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with Josh and his family,” Dean’s attorneys, Brian Knowles and Rob Turkewitz, told Fox News Digital on Thursday. “Josh’s passing is a loss to the aviation community and the flying public. He possessed tremendous courage to stand up for what he felt was true and right and raised quality and safety issues.”
Signage outside the Boeing Co. manufacturing facility in Renton, Washington, on Feb. 5. Boeing Co. found more mistakes with holes drilled in the fuselage of its 737 Max jet, a setback that could further slow deliveries on a critical program already restricted by regulators over quality lapses. (David Ryder/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
He was being represented by the same law firm that was working for John Barnett, another Boeing whistleblower who police in Charleston, South Carolina, found dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound on March 9.
“Aviation companies should encourage and incentivize those that do raise these concerns,” the lawyers said. “Otherwise, safety and quality are truly not these companies’ top priorities.”
Barnett, 62, was found dead of a gunshot wound outside his hotel the day after he gave a deposition in connection with his own retaliation lawsuit.
Barnett had sued Boeing, claiming that he had been retaliated against, harassed and spied on by the company. He never showed up for his second day of depositions. His lawyers started making calls, and hotel workers found him dead in the parking lot.
BOEING WHISTLEBLOWER’S LAWYERS DEMAND FULL INVESTIGATION INTO MYSTERIOUS DEATH MID-DEPOSITION
Boeing whistleblower John Barnett spoke out about the company’s practices in January. (TMZ)
In January, Barnett told TMZ that he was concerned that Boeing was returning its 737 Max 9 jets to the sky too quickly, after the incident in which an Alaska Airlines jet’s door panel blew off mid-flight.
Boeing has struggled with safety concerns about its 737 Max airplanes.
CEO Dave Calhoun announced that he would step down at the end of the year. Other executives, including the head of the 737 Max program, and board members are also leaving the company amid the fallout.
Barnett said he had learned of the issue while working at Boeing’s North Charleston plant in 2010 and claimed to have raised the issue with management, but to no avail. Instead of tackling the issue, his lawyers allege, the company retaliated against him and subjected him to a hostile work environment, leading to the lawsuit for which he was being deposed.
The Federal Aviation Administration reviewed Boeing in 2017, corroborated some of Barnett’s allegations and ordered the company to take action.
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