The jury in the case of an American rancher who killed a Mexican migrant passing through his land on the Arizona-Mexico border failed to reach a verdict Monday, resulting in a mistrial.

A Santa Cruz County Superior Court judge has declared a mistrial for rancher George Allan Kelly, accused of killing 48-year-old Gabriel Kuen Buitimea in January 2023.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office will announce at its April 29 meeting whether it plans to file a second lawsuit against the rancher.

Jurors began deliberating Thursday but told the judge last Friday they were unable to reach a decision.

The judge asked the jury to continue deliberations but today again told the court he could not reach an agreement.

During the trial, which began in early April, prosecutors said Kelly, 75, “intentionally” fired without warning into the group of migrants.

The migrant died after receiving at least one gunshot wound to the back.

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Prosecutors argued that the group of migrants with the Mexican did not pose any threat to the lives of Kelly and his wife when he fired the AK-47 assault rifle.

The men, wearing camouflage clothing and carrying backpacks, walked parallel to the rancher’s house about the length of an American football field (more than 100 meters). None of them had firearms.

The rancher’s attorneys said the man fired in an attempt to intimidate a group of at least six people who were on his land.

The bullet that killed the Mexican was never found, so the defense argued that there was a possibility that a group of traders could have attacked them to steal “their goods.”

This is despite the fact that no weapons or drugs were found at the scene.

A rancher found the Mexican’s body a few hours after the events while surveying his land. However, the first time he called the Border Patrol, not 911, he said he had found the body of an “animal.”

The case has attracted attention on both sides of the border due to controversy caused by followers of former President Donald Trump (2017-2021), who called Kelly a “hero” and a “patriot” because he defended their lands from “invasion” by migrants and drug dealers.

Kuen Buitimea was a father of seven children, a native of Buaysiacobe in southern Sonora, where he was survived by his mother, wife and seven siblings who depended on his migration to support the family.

The victim had entered the United States illegally several times and had already been deported, most recently in 2016, according to immigration records. EFE