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

“He turned towards me … pointed the AK at me.”

— George Alan Kelly

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. 

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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.”

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.

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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.