‘Lone Holdout’ Juror Blocked Acquittal of Arizona Rancher George Alan Kelly
George Alan Kelly’s defense has confirmed that the Arizona rancher’s acquittal was blocked by “one, lone holdout” who wanted to convict.
The remaining jurors sought an acquittal, the lawyers revealed.
Kelly was on trial for “murder” for allegedly shooting and killing an illegal alien who was trespassing on his property.
However, Arizona Superior Court Judge Thomas Fink dramatically declared that the case ended in a mistrial on Monday.
The jurors were unable to reach a unanimous decision to convict Kelly of second-degree murder.
They also could agree on any of the lower counts of manslaughter, negligent homicide or aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
The judge has now scheduled a status hearing for Monday, April 29.
The hearing next week will “allow the state to take a look at the situation and decide whether or not it wishes to ask the court to reset the matter for trial,” Fink said.
“The jury verdict was seven to acquit and one, lone holdout who was stubborn and would not listen to evidence,” the defense team told Fox News.
“All the other jurors were angry about it.”
The jury remained deadlocked after deliberating since Thursday for more than 15 hours.
“They won’t wear me down,” Kelly said at the courthouse of the potential of being tried a second time, according to AZ Central.
“I feel like I’ve been in suspension for 15 months, and I’m getting nowhere, and I’m still on that treadmill,” Kelly’s wife, Wanda Kelly, added Monday, according to the outlet.
“We have to wait a little longer.”
Santa Cruz County District Attorney George Silva’s office, which led the case, has yet to issue a statement.
The prosecution claimed that the deceased, Mexican illegal alien Gabriel Cuen-Buitimea, was an “unarmed migrant pursuing the American Dream.”
Cuen-Buitimea was found shot to death on Kelly’s 170-acre cattle ranch near Keno Springs outside Nogales, Arizona, on Jan. 30, 2023.
Kelly’s defense attorney, Brenna Larkin, said in her closing argument last week that evidence did not support the prosecution’s claim that Cuen-Buitimea, was an “unarmed migrant pursuing the American Dream.”
The defense claimed that prosecutors failed to prove that Cuen-Buitimea was shot by Kelly’s gun.
The defense maintained that Kelly only fired warning shots into the air from his patio earlier that day.
Wanda Kelly testified about dialing their Border Patrol ranch liaison upon spotting two armed men dressed in camouflage and carrying rifles and backpacks walking about 100 feet from their home.
Law enforcement responded to the property, and hours passed before Kelly called Border Patrol again to report finding the body about 115 yards from the ranching couple’s residence.
A criminologist working pro bono as a consultant for Kelly’s defense, Dr. Ron Martinelli, excoriated Santa Cruz County Sheriff David Hathaway’s testimony.
Hathaway testified about having crossed the border to Mexico weeks after the shooting on Kelly’s ranch to interview Daniel Ramirez.
Ramirez was a Honduran man who prosecutors claim was the sole sight witness to Cuen-Buitimea’s death.
Larkin said, based on Ramirez’s own testimony, he was not there.
Ramirez testified that he formerly ran drugs across the border, though not on the day of the shooting, and had been deported several times.
Additionally, the defense argued the investigation was mired by cartel influence.
Hathaway, who only recorded about six minutes of a 40-minute interview with Ramirez, was pressed about a conduit who arranged the meeting in Mexico named Juan Carlos Rodriguez.
Martinelli told Fox News that the district attorney’s office was forced to reveal to the defense team that Rodriguez is a twice-convicted felon.
The first conviction was for aggravated assault and domestic violence after strangling his girlfriend, and then he served another two years in prison “for the transportation of weapons into the United States.”
“We’re not here to solve the mystery,” Larkin said Thursday.
“And the fact is, we’re probably never going to know what really happened to Gabriel.
“And we won’t know because the investigation in this case jumped to conclusions.
“They didn’t search when they should have.
“They didn’t preserve evidence that they should have.
“They didn’t do tests that they should have. And now we’ll never know.”
“We all live in Santa Cruz County. I live in Santa Cruz County,” Larkin said.
“You folks live in Santa Cruz County.
“After reviewing all the evidence in this case, if I were to imagine finding a body on my property someday, hopefully that never happens.
“If I ever find a body on my property someday, and I don’t know what happened, and I don’t know how it got there, I think I’d be considering my options before I call these guys.”
Testimony also revealed that the fatal bullet was never recovered from the scene.
Martinelli also previously revealed that none of the state’s witnesses in the trial had provided any rebuttal testimony against the defense theory that a rip crew — a gang of bandits, sometimes cartel-affiliated — could have fatally shot Cuen-Buitimea and robbed him.
Prosecutor Mike Jetter maintained in his closing argument that there was “no justification” to use deadly physical force upon seeing “two unarmed men walking two fences away.”
He claimed Kelly pulled out his AK-47, stepped out onto his back patio and, without any verbal warning, fired nine times.
The defense said while Kelly would have been justified in using deadly physical force, the elderly rancher did not.
Larkin added that there is nothing in the law that prevents him from using lesser force to defend himself and his wife out on their isolated ranch “in the middle of nowhere.”
