An Arizona judge declared a mistrial on Monday in the case of a rancher accused of fatally shooting a Mexican man on his property near the US-Mexico border.
George Kelly, 75, was charged with second-degree murder in the 30 January 2023 shooting of Gabriel Cuen-Buitimea, 48, who lived just south of the border in Nogales.
Prosecutors said Kelly recklessly fired nine shots from an AK-47 rifle towards a group of men, including Cuen-Buitimea, about 100 yards (90m) away on his cattle ranch. Kelly has said he fired warning shots in the air, but he did not shoot directly at anyone.
Court officials took jurors to Kelly’s ranch as well as a section of the border. The superior court judge Thomas Fink denied news media requests to accompany them.
Kelly had earlier rejected an agreement with prosecutors that would have reduced the charge to one count of negligent homicide if he pleaded guilty.
Kelly was also charged with aggravated assault that day against another person in the group of about eight people, including a man from Honduras who was living in Mexico and who testified during the trial that he had gone into the US that day seeking work.
The other migrants were not injured and they all made it back to Mexico.
Cuen-Buitimea had previously entered the USwithout documentation several times and was deported, most recently in 2016, court records show.
The nearly month-long trial coincided with a presidential election year that has drawn widespread interest in border security.
