An Arizona judge declared a mistrial in the case of a man accused of fatally shooting a Mexican man who was in his property, located near the U.S. southern border, The Associated Press reported.
The decision was announced after jurors failed to reach an unanimous verdict following more than two full days of deliberations.
George Alan Kelly had been charged with second-degree murder after shooting Gabriel Cuen-Buitimea, who lived south of the border. He was also charged with aggravated assault of another person in said group. The man, who hailed from Honduras, said he was living in Mexico and gone into the U.S. on that day looking for work.
The defendant said he had fired warning, not direct shots toward a group of men who were in his cattle ranch. He previously rejected an agreement with prosecutors that would have reduced the charges against him.
Had Kelly been convicted of the first charge, he could have gotten a minimum prison sentence of 10 years.
The Mexican Consul General of Nogales, Arizona, Marcos Moreno Baez said he would wait with the victim's daughters and meet with prosecutors to learn about the implications of a mistrial. "Mexico will continue to follow the case and continue to accompany the family, which wants justice." said Moreno. "We hope for a very fair outcome."
The judge in the case, Thomas Fink, told jurors that if they didn't reach a unanimous agreement on the charge they could go for a lesser one, reckless manslaughter or negligent homicide. However, that seemingly wasn't the case either.
The case garnered broad attention and prompted Arizona Republicans to push for a bill that would allow people to legally kill others accused of trespassing or attempting to trespass on their property.
The bill expanded on existing doctrine and sought to include a broader concept of "premises," encompassing occupied or unoccupied structures.
State Republicans also passed an initiative called the Arizona Border Invasion Act, which would have made crossing the border without authorization a misdemeanor state crime, and a felony for migrants who crossed after being deported or ordered to leave.
The initiative was blocked by Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs, who said he measure "does not secure our border, will be harmful for communities and businesses in our state and burdensome for law enforcement." The bill is similar to SB4, a Texas law seeking to allow state law enforcement to arrest and deport migrants and which prompted many state Republicans to introduce similar measures.
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