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.
Agree, but the context does matter here. Nogales is known for cartel drug (and human) smuggling. The article says the crossers on his ranch had been getting more aggressive(allegedly) so he armed himself.
The article also mentions that he saw 5 guys with large “backpacks” and rifles. That description is very likely drug smugglers (whose “backpacks” were actually 50-75lb marijuana bundles) and not just your average migrant crossers.
They also report hearing a gun shot.
But the article is sparse on how we get from that to the rancher “shooting over (allegedly unarmed) migrants heads” with a an ak47.
Especially because the timeframe was presumably “late lunch” aka broad daylight.
I’m always wary of jumping to conclusions because these stories are usually much more involved than headlines or even articles like this tend to let on.
Who the hell smuggles weed into Arizona? You can buy it at the store…
Is it necessary to smuggle weed into the U.S. at all anymore? There are huge commercial grow operations.
Smuggling it into another state, sure…
Illegal weed sells at reasonable prices while untaxed, legal weed is taxed and much more expensive. Until the price of legal weed makes illegal weed not worth the effort it will continue to be a problem. Even then they’ll just switch to a different commodity.
How much cheaper is it? Because every legal state and state that borders it is selling Ounces for like 100-150 of high quality. That’s dirt cheap, when it was $250 - $350 like a decade ago.
i don’t disagree with your point but you were getting fleeced a decade ago lol
I couldn’t say as I’m not buying it, but it stands to reason if they are taking the effort to smuggle it that it’s not for charity. Just checked the neared shop to me and it’s $180-250 for an ounce of legal weed, I imagine the black market is significantly cheaper as I imagine there’s little cost once you get get past the first harvest.
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People who grow it outside the US and want to profit off selling it in the US is who is smuggling it. Why is it even still worth doing with legalized weed, simple it’s cheap to grow so it can be sold for a low price that legal markets don’t want to give up their high profit margins and governments who tax the legal sales are percentage based so they have no incentive to encourage lower prices and thus the illegal market is still profitable.
The entire opening scene of Beverly Hills Cop is Axel Foley trying to stop a truckload of cigarettes without government tax stamps. Bart Simpson also stored a truckload of Laramie 100 cigarettes in his room on behalf of his boss Fat Tony which they lifted off a truck for the same purpose.
Nobody is smuggling weed over the border when you can just drive it over from any nearby state.
Who knows what they were doing, but I think it’s unlikely they’re going to want to get in gun fights if they’re trying to sneakily smuggle something across the border.
Arizona had recreational weed available 3 years prior to this shooting. Not much weed is likely smuggled there. I’m no expert though, maybe bringing into legal states is less risky and then moving it to other states.
All that can be true and they still don’t make the person investigator, judge and executioner. I guess we’ll see what the defence says at the trial - I’m assuming “feared for his personal safety” will feature heavily.
You’re just trying to spread your anti-gun rhetoric.
Putting the hard work in for that Soros check!
Oh no! Anything but Marijuana!
The “rifles” part would be of more concern to the average man.