An Arizona rancher went on trial Friday in the fatal shooting of a migrant on his property near Mexico, with his defense attorney maintaining his innocence as the national debate over border security heats up ahead of this year’s presidential election.

George Alan Kelly, 75, has been charged with second-degree murder in the killing of a man he encountered on his property outside Nogales, Arizona. The jury trial in Santa Cruz County Superior Court is expected to last up to a month until around April 19, with proceedings held four days a week with Mondays off.

Kelly had earlier rejected a plea deal that would have reduced the charge to one count of negligent homicide if he pleaded guilty. His case has garnered the sympathy of some on the political right, with several efforts raising hundreds of thousands of dollars for his defense, including several on the GoFundMe platform that were quickly shut down because of the charges against him.

He was arrested and charged last year in the Jan. 30, 2023, fatal shooting of 48-year-old Gabriel Cuen-Buitimea of adjacent Nogales, Mexico, just south of the border.

  • @PoliticalAgitator
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    128 months ago

    Sounds more like you heard an undesirable got shot with a cool gun and are wondering what the official conservative take is.

    Obviously they can’t go with “he was a legal gun owner and a complete cunt and he killed someone because he wanted to, not because he was forced to” – it’s not profitable enough.

    • @[email protected]
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      28 months ago

      I’m an immigrant myself, you guys need to slow your role. Neither am I a conservative nor preach the 2a. You can be curious about the technicalities of a case without picking a side. I’ve marched plenty for liberal social causes, but I have never seen so many SJWs ready to attack than on lemmy.

      • @PoliticalAgitator
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        8 months ago

        But have you ever read an article?

        Anyone can claim to be anything on the internet. If you don’t want to be mistaken for a right-wing reactionary, don’t respond to “immigrant murdered by Texan gun owner” with “but what if he deserved it?”.