A border rancher charged with murder shot an unarmed man in the back as he ran for his life, the prosecutor says.
Santa Cruz County sheriff’s deputies arrested George Alan Kelly, 74, after finding the body of a Mexican national on Jan. 30 who had been shot and died on Kelly’s property, which is close to the U.S.-Mexico border near Nogales.
“It’s the state’s position that Mr. Kelly shot an unarmed man in the back in an unprovoked attack as he ran for his life with no warning, and the victim was more than 100 yards from the defendant’s residence when he was shot and killed,” prosecutor Kimberly Hunley said at a Wednesday hearing in the case.
Hunley also said there were two more victims besides the man who died, who also fled and were shot at, and more witnesses. The victims and others in the group present, which numbered at least eight people, were unarmed, she said.
The prosecutor for the state outlines their position, during a hearing in Justice Court in Nogales on Feb. 22, in the case against George Alan Kelly, whom Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s deputies arrested after finding the body of a Mexican national on Jan. 30 on Kelly’s property near Nogales.
Kelly’s attorney, Brenna Larkin, countered: “We obviously have a disagreement about what the facts of this case are. The state asserts that Mr. Kelly, with no criminal history and no motive for doing so, just essentially began opening fire on a group of unarmed people who were trespassing on his property.
“Our position is that that did not happen, that Mr. Kelly would not do such a thing, and that instead, what happened was that he was approached by armed men who were on his property,” Larkin said.
‘He’s not going to run away’
There were two charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, related to the two other alleged victims, added to the murder charge against Kelly on Tuesday, prior to the Wednesday hearing in Justice Court in Nogales.
The filing with the additional charges only used initials for the two other people suspected of having been assaulted and did not list their nationalities.
A judge agreed at the hearing to change Kelly’s $1 million cash bond to a surety bond of the same amount, meaning a bail bondsman could post bail.
Kelly entered a not guilty plea during Wednesday’s hearing, where Larkin asked for the judge to modify his conditions of release from the $1 million cash bond to releasing him on his own recognizance or to his wife as a third party and that his bond be reduced and/or converted to a surety bond.
Larkin said Kelly has lived in the area for decades, has caused no problems, is elderly, has no reason to flee and has no place to go, and is extremely recognizable due to all the publicity surrounding the case. He’s willing to surrender his passport and wear an ankle monitor, she said.
“He’s putting up his own land, his own property, essentially everything that he has, and he’s not going to run away from that,” Larkin said, in asking the bond be converted to a surety bond.
The motion also said Kelly has received threats from other jail inmates and was moved to protective custody on 23-hour lockdown.
George Alan Kelly’s defense lawyer Brenna Larkin lays out what she sees as issues with the prosecutor’s case against Kelly during a hearing in Justice Court in Nogales on Feb. 22.
Defense says group carried AK-47s
A motion to modify the conditions of release filed on Feb. 9 detailed the defense’s version of events on Jan. 30, when Kelly reported to authorities that he discovered a body on his property, in the Kino Springs area, where he and his wife have lived for the past two decades.
Earlier that day, Kelly and his wife were eating lunch when they heard a gunshot, then saw his horse running away at full speed, the defense motion says. Next, he saw a group of men carrying AK-47s, wearing khakis and camouflaged clothing and carrying large backpacks moving through the trees around his home, it says.
The defense document goes on to say that Kelly called the Border Patrol and asked for immediate help, then told his wife to stay inside, silent and away from windows, while he went to the porch with his rifle.
Kelly was hoping to scare the men and fired a shot well over their heads, the motion says. The group fled and Kelly went to his barn to see if it was secure.
The motion says the Border Patrol “incorrectly reported” that Kelly told them he could not tell whether the men were armed or not, but that the agency’s radio dispatch did say that armed men had been seen in the area.
While Kelly checked the barn, Border Patrol agents and sheriff’s deputies arrived on his property, and Kelly told them what he’d seen, the motion says. Law enforcement spoke with Kelly’s wife, who said she also saw armed men carrying large backpacks, it says. Agents and deputies walked all over the property and didn’t find anyone.
Later in the day, as the sun was setting, Kelly went to the pastures to check on his horse, bringing his dogs with him. After checking on the horse, he saw the dogs were focused on something on the ground near a mesquite tree.
Kelly walked over and saw a body, face down in the grass, the motion says. Kelly called the Border Patrol again to report the body and ask for help.
Authorities believe the man who was killed was 48-year-old Gabriel Cuen Buitimea, of Nogales, Sonora, because of a Mexican voter registration card he carried, according to The Arizona Republic.
When his body was discovered he did not have any firearms or a backpack, but he did have a radio and tactical boots, the court filing says. The cause of death appeared to be a single gunshot wound and “it appeared that the body was fresh,” meaning he had likely died recently.
Kelly told law enforcement he had fired warning shots but not directly at anyone, and he doesn’t believe any of his shots could have hit the man or caused his death. The investigation continues.
George Alan Kelly enters court for his preliminary hearing in Nogales Justice Court in Nogales, Ariz., Feb. 22.
Prosecution says victim safety a concern
The state filed a motion late Tuesday in opposition of modifying the conditions of release, and an amended version on Wednesday that removed two victims’ first names the state erroneously included.
Many details of the investigation and victims’ statements are being withheld, at least in part because of concerns for the victims’ safety, and because the investigation is ongoing and witnesses still are being interviewed, the prosecution’s filing says.
The filing details some of what the victims reported. On Jan 30, a group of seven to eight undocumented immigrants were traveling north through the Kino Springs area from Mexico, the prosecution’s filing says, reiterating that no one in the group was armed.
The victims said they were within sight of Kelly’s residence when he suddenly shot at them with an AK-47, without any warning, it says.
One victim, only identified as D.R-R, heard Cuen Buitimea call out that he’d been hit before falling to the ground. D.R-R saw his eyes roll back in his head and knew he was dead, the filing says.
D.R-R and another victim identified as R.F-G ran away from the shooter toward Mexico and felt they were being hunted. Kelly shot eight more rounds “without warning and unprovoked, while they fled for their lives, unarmed and unable to defend themselves,” the filing says.
The two victims said they ran south until they jumped the fence back into Mexico. They are both willing to testify, the filing says.
The filing goes on to say Kelly made numerous conflicting statements to law enforcement, including telling the Border Patrol agent he called that he was being shot at and was shooting back and later saying he was too far to tell if they had firearms.
Not much has been released about the victim Cuen Buitimea, but federal court records show someone with the same name and age pleaded guilty to unlawfully entering the country at or near Nogales in 2016 and had been either denied entry or deported several times in previous years.
An evidentiary hearing in Kelly’s case is scheduled for Friday at 9 a.m. in Nogales.
National fundraising for Kelly
A crowdsourcing fundraiser for Kelly on GiveSendGo had raised nearly $318,500 by Wednesday afternoon, with nearly 5,700 contributions.
GoFundMe shut down campaigns to pay for Kelly’s legal defense, saying its rules explicitly prohibit campaigns that raise money to cover the legal defense of anyone formally charged with an alleged violent crime, according to the Associated Press. The money was returned to donors.
The description for the Kelly fundraiser on GiveSendGo, which describes itself as a Christian fundraising platform, says Kelly is in jail “for killing an invader to the United States,” as well as mentioning former president Donald Trump, saying, ”there are Patriots bringing it to President Trump’s attention, hopefully President Trump will stand up for him and the American people against this outrage.”
‘Disturbing communications,’ threats
Santa Cruz County employees in the sheriff’s office, county courthouse and main complex have been receiving hostile and racist phone calls from people sympathetic to Kelly, largely from out-of-state area codes, as originally reported by the Nogales International.
The prosecution’s Wednesday court filing also says the court, county attorney’s office and sheriff’s department have received “disturbing communications, some threatening in nature, that seem to indicate an ongoing threat to the safety of the victims.”
Kelly’s defense attorney said during Wednesday’s hearing that he has nothing to do with any such comments or threats.
“He’s very upset and disappointed that there are people out there who have taken it upon themselves to engage in that activity,” Larkin said.
There is a self-published book on Amazon likely authored by Kelly called “Far Beyond the Border Fence.” The book summary says it’s “a contemporary novel which brings the Mexican Border/Drug conflict into the 21st century.”
Authored by a man with the same name as Kelly, the 57-page novel focuses on a man named George and his wife, Wanda, which is the name of Kelly’s real-life wife, according to the Associated Press.
“Several times each week illegal immigrants would cross the VMR ranch,” says a section in the book. “They were led by armed human smugglers called Coyotes. George and his foreman had to patrol the ranch daily, armed with AK-47′s.”
Get your morning recap of today's local news and read the full stories here: tucne.ws/morning
