Arizona Rancher Murder Trial: Critical Evidence *Never Recovered* – Prosecution Cannot Definitively Prove Kelly Fired the Fatal Shot
On January 30, 2023, Arizona rancher George Alan Kelly, 75, was arrested and charged with the murder of Gabriel Cuen-Buitimea. Cuen-Buitimea was crossing the border from his hometown of Nogales, Mexico, with a group of seven other illegal immigrants donning camouflage attire and rifles.
One of the illegal immigrants said the squad of armed men crossed the border into the United States to look for work but scattered after seeing Border Patrol agents. Shortly thereafter, Kelly became aware of the group.
He was making lunch when he heard a single gunshot and then noticed five of the men crossing through his 170-acre ranch along the southern border. Kelly claims he saw one of the men point their rifle at him when he went to his porch to investigate. Kelly responded by firing warning shots with his own rifle over the group’s heads.
Cuen-Buitimea was struck by a bullet that allegedly came from Kelly’s rifle. However, responding officers, including local police and US Border Patrol, did not initially find Cuen-Buitimea’s body when they investigated. It wasn’t until later when Kelly went to check on his horse, that the body was discovered.
Kelly had previously called the police several times that day to report a group of armed men trespassing through his property.
Arizona Rancher Goes on Trial For Killing Illegal Alien on His Property
The trial began last week as the State in the Santa Cruz Superior Court as prosecutors seek a second-degree murder conviction after downgrading the charge from first-degree murder. However, on Friday, during the trial, a key piece of evidence was revealed to be missing: the bullet that killed Cuen-Buitimea was never recovered.
During the testimony of forensic scientist Rick Wyant, defense attorney Brenna Larkin asked, “So number one, you can’t prove who the shooter was, correct?” to which Wyant answered, “That’s correct.”
Tuscon’s 13 News published a video excerpt of this part of the testimony:
“You can’t prove which firearm caused this wound. Is that correct?” she asked.
“Caused the wound? Correct.”
“You can’t prove which type of ammunition caused this wound, correct?”
“That is true.”
“You can’t prove which bullet caused this wound, correct?”
“Also true.”
“Can’t prove which direction this shot came from, correct?”
“Correct.”
“And we can’t prove how far away this shot came from other than further than 6 feet away from this person, correct?”
“Yes, true.”
Without a bullet, forensic experts cannot determine whether it was Kelly’s rifle that fired the fatal shot, which all but narrows this case down to the 75-year old American rancher’s word against that of the prosecution’s witness, 43-year old Daniel Ramirez, an illegal immigrant from Honduras.
Ramirez testified on day three of the trial and admitted that he had previously smuggled drugs across the border, as reported by FOX News.
He also reported that he’d attempted to cross the border eight to ten times previously and had been deported multiple times during those efforts. He testified that it cost him $2,500, paid to human smugglers, each time he had crossed the border.
Kelly’s wife of 53 years, Wanda Kelly, set up a GiveSendGo for defense donations after “several” GoFundMe pages were taken down “because of the charges against him”, according to the Associated Press. So much for “innocent until proven guilty”.
The trial will resume tomorrow, April 2nd.
The post Arizona Rancher Murder Trial: Critical Evidence *Never Recovered* – Prosecution Cannot Definitively Prove Kelly Fired the Fatal Shot appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.