A judge set a September trial date for an Arizona rancher charged in the shooting death of an undocumented migrant on his property near Nogales.
Judge Thomas Fink set the jury trial to begin on Sept. 6 and run 11 days until Sept. 22, if needed, during an arraignment on Monday, March 6, in Santa Cruz County Superior Court.
George Alan Kelly, 74, is charged with second-degree murder in the Jan. 30 shooting death of Mexican national Gabriel Cuen Buitimea, 48, as well as two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in the case.
He entered not guilty pleas to the charges.
Judge Thomas Fink set the jury trial to begin on Sept. 6 during an arraignment on Monday, March 6, in Santa Cruz County Superior Court. Video courtesy of Fox News.
Kelly was arrested after sheriffβs deputies found Cuenβs body on the rancherβs property, close to the U.S.-Mexico border. Kelly was released on a $1 million cash bond on Feb. 22.
Santa Cruz County Justice of the Peace Emilio G. Velasquez found that the state established probable cause, or adequate evidence, at a hearing on Feb. 24 in Nogales, to prosecute Kelly on the charges. Both the state and the defense called witnesses at the hearing.
On Monday, Fink denied a request from defense attorney Brenna Larkin not to set the case for trial but rather to allow a 60-day continuance to give the defense more time for an extensive investigation and to look at forensic evidence in the case.
The state executed an additional search warrant on Monday on Kellyβs property, Larkin said, and she asked that a trial not be set until the defense had time to review the results of that search warrant. Officials previously executed at least two search warrants in this case on Kellyβs property.
In addition, Larkin filed a motion on March 3 to review the magistrate judgeβs decision to send the case to trial, which the judge has yet to hear.
Fink said he did not think his decision on the motion would be extensive and that for now he would leave the trial date set.
George A. Kelly walks over to his lawyer during his arraignment in Santa Cruz County Superior Court in Nogales, Arizona, on March 6, 2023.
The prosecutionβs position in the case is that Kelly shot an unarmed man in the back in an unprovoked attack as he ran for his life with no warning. The man was with a group of about eight undocumented migrants crossing the border, prosecutors say.
The defense says Kelly was approached by armed drug smugglers on his property and he only fired a warning shot over their heads and that the more likely conclusion is that Cuen was shot by someone else.
The defense maintains Kelly was eating lunch with his wife when he heard a gunshot and saw numerous armed men carrying rifles and large backpacks. Kelly went to the porch with his rifle to deter the men from approaching his house, says the motion filed March 3 to review the magistrate judgeβs probable cause determination.
One of the men pointed a rifle at Kelly and he responded by firing several warning shots over their heads, the motion says.
Prosecutors previously lowered Kellyβs charge from first-degree murder, which would have required a finding of premeditated intent to kill, to the second-degree charge.
Mexican official Vanessa Calva Ruiz, head of consular protection, said last week that Mexico officials told U.S. prosecutors they believe first-degree charges were more appropriate given the circumstances of Cuenβs death, according to The Arizona Republic.
βThe defendant, George Kelly, opened fire on the group that Mr. Cuen was a part of. Not one person was armed. There was not an element of imminent danger,β Calva said at a press conference Friday.
