Defense in rancher murder trial rests without George Alan Kelly taking stand

NOGALES, Ariz. — Jurors will soon begin considering a verdict in the murder trial of Santa Cruz County rancher George Alan Kelly . The defense rested without Kelly testifying in his own defense.

Defendants are not required to testify and they rarely do. It’s dangerous for a defendant to do because besides friendly questions from their own lawyers, prosecutors can hit them with very unfriendly questions.Kelly’s defense attorneys decided not to put him on the stand. Throughout the trial, investigators have testified that Kelly’s story kept changing about the incident.

But Kelly later found one man dead—Gabriel Cuen Buitimea fell more than a hundred yards from where Kelly stood just outside his house and fired nine times. No bullet was ever found to test for a match to Kelly’s rifle. The bullet that killed the man went through him and kept going. Kelly’s defense attorney’s suggested the dead man was involved in smuggling and that bandits shot him to steal drugs, money and guns.

A second degree murder charge does not ask jurors if someone meant to kill anyone. All that’s required for a conviction is to prove Kelly was reckless when he fired his rifle and that a man died as a result.Craig Smith is a reporter for KGUN 9. With more than 40 years of reporting in cities like Tampa, Houston and Austin, Craig has covered more than 40 Space Shuttle launches and covered historic hurricanes like Katrina, Ivan, Andrew and Hugo.

Source: Law Daily Report (lawdailyreport.net)

Gabriel Cuen Buitimea George Alan Kelly Santa Cruz County Rancher Rancher Shoots Border Crosser Rancher Shoots Migrant

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