Prosecutors say they will not retry an Arizona rancher whose trial in the fatal shooting of a Mexican man on his property ended last week with a deadlocked jury.
The jurors in the case against George Alan Kelly were unable to reach a unanimous decision on a verdict after more than two days of deliberation. The judge declared a mistrial on April 22.
The 75-year-old Kelly had been on trial for nearly a month. The rancher was charged with second-degree murder in the Jan. 30, 2023, killing of 48-year-old Gabriel Cuen-Buitimea outside Nogales, Arizona, near the border with Mexico.
Cuen-Buitimea had lived just south of the border in Nogales, Mexico. He was in a group of men that Kelly encountered that day on his cattle ranch.
The trial coincided with a presidential election year that has drawn widespread interest in border security.
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