Charges have been downgraded against the Arizona rancher accused of killing a Mexican national. Reasons for the charge being lowered from first to second degree murder weren’t explained by prosecutors but came as a member of the victim’s traveling party took the witness stand.
Rancher free on bond
Arizona rancher George Alan Kelly, the 74-year-old accused of killing Gabriel Cuen-Buitimea, was released on a million dollars bond. He’s been sitting in jail on first degree murder charges which were just lowered.
He admitted from the beginning that he fired “warning shots” at armed banditos threatening him with AK-47’s but didn’t aim at anyone. The most likely explanation is that one of his rounds came down in just the right place to end Cuen-Buitimea’s life.
It’s hard to get a straight story out of the network media because they want to twist things to make the Democrat side look better. They are reporting that a Mexican national “who was referred to by the initials D.R.R. to protect his identity,” took the stand to testify against Kelly.
AZ: 74 y/o George Alan Kelly arrived to his evidentiary hearing in Nogales alone this morning—While his attorney recommended he didn’t make a comment he told me off camera that he doesn’t know what to expect today as he has never been in a situation like this.
Hearing at 9am. pic.twitter.com/7XIxeEFGbl
— Ali Bradley (@AliBradleyTV) February 24, 2023
Through a Spanish-speaking interpreter, he swore under oath that “the shots rang out without warning and that because of this, his group didn’t know where they were coming from.” That backs the story the rancher has been telling all along. What the media isn’t saying is that he’s probably a “coyote.”
One thing is certain, D.R.R. knows how to get back and forth across the border. He does it all the time. He claims on the stand that he was an ordinary migrant, saying “he and Cuen-Buitimea had paid for passage across the border on January 30, from Nogales, Mexico, and were heading to Phoenix.” The rancher has been in jail since that day.
The witness swears up and down he was unarmed. He was however “wearing a green camouflage backpack as well as a bag on his belt.” U.S. court records show that the victim “was convicted of illegally entering the U.S. several times and deported back to Mexico, most recently in 2016. D.R.R. also testified that he has crossed the border illegally multiple times.” That makes it seem strange he would need to pay a coyote.
Arizona rancher George Alan Kelly's murder charge downgraded to second-degree in shooting of Mexican migrant https://t.co/9UKAk7yZvM
— Fox News (@FoxNews) February 25, 2023
Material fact hearing
The hearing was held February 24, in Santa Cruz County Justice Court, intended to determine issues of material fact in the case. When the witness took the stand, he described how, “I did nothing. I saw Gabriel. He held his chest and said ‘I’m hit.‘ He rolled his eyes and fell down.”
That supports the story told by the accused rancher. Kelly is now “charged with one count of second-degree murder and two counts of aggravated assault against two migrants, including the one who testified Friday.”
They were “they were 3-4 yards from the road when they suddenly heard gunfire. It was around the fourth round that Cuen-Buitimea was wounded, but 15 or 16 shots were fired in all, he testified.”
AZ: “There’s too many to name a few…”
74y/o George Alan Kelly tells me he doesn’t know if he’s encouraged by inconsistencies in witness testimony during the evidentiary hearing—Only flashing a smile when asked how he felt about the decision to send his case to superior court. pic.twitter.com/cnXAfyTq15— Ali Bradley (@AliBradleyTV) February 25, 2023
He ran “I ran 20 meters (22 yards) when I turned around to see him (Kelly). I turned around to see if it was government agents coming after us. I was able to jump and I jumped the wall back to Mexico.” The only difference in the story the American rancher tells, is that he says some of them were armed and pointed their weapons at him first.
Nobody denies that “Kelly opened fire with an AK-47 rifle.” The rancher insists the men he shot at were armed, the prosecutor claims they were unarmed.
Two more “of the migrants later told authorities that Kelly also shot at them, but that they weren’t hit and managed to escape over the fence back into Mexico.“
