Arizona Rancher Accused of Murder in Shooting Death of Mexican Man Faces New Charges

Arizona rancher George Alan Kelly, who already faces a first-degree murder charge for the shooting death of a Mexican man, now also faces two charges of aggravated assault Tuesday {snip}

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In his own court filing from earlier this month, Kelly — who remains held on $1 million bond — says he’s an innocent man. He admits to firing his rifle in the air in late January to scare off armed drug traffickers. Those men, he says, are the ones responsible for the shooting death of a Mexican national found shot to death on Kelly’s borderland property outside Nogales.

Kelly, 73, is charged with first-degree, premeditated murder in the Jan. 30 shooting of a man whom authorities believe to be 48-year-old Gabriel Cuen-Butimea, based on the Mexican voter registration card he carried. The rancher had completed chores on his ranch near Kino Springs earlier that day and came to his house to have lunch with his wife when he heard a single gunshot as they ate, Kelly’s court-appointed attorney, Brenna Larkin, wrote in a court filing previously obtained by Fox News Digital.

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“Finally, he saw a group of men moving through the trees around his home. They were armed with AK-47 rifles, dressed in khakis and camouflaged clothing and carrying large backpacks,” Larkin wrote. {snip}

Because he was “understandably concerned and reasonably feared for his safety, his wife’s safety, and his animals’ safety,” Kelly called the U.S. Border Patrol ranch liaison, specifically assigned to aid people living on borderlands, to report what he had seen and “to summon immediate help,” Larkin wrote.

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“The leader of the armed group of men saw Mr. Kelly and pointed an AK-47 right at him,” Larkin wrote. “Mr. Kelly, fearing for his life and safety, fired several shots from his rifle, hoping to scare them away from him, his wife, his animals, and his home. As he shot, Mr. Kelly took care to aim well over the heads of the armed group of men. The group then began running into the desert surrounding his home. {snip}”

{snip} The radio dispatch to the Border Patrol agents en route to the property at approximately 2:40 p.m. “correctly reported that armed men had been seen in the area.”

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As the sun was going down later that day, Kelly went to his pastures to check on his horse, still concerned the horse might have been injured in the incident. Noticing that the dogs he took with him were focused on something on the ground near a mesquite tree, Kelly approached the area and “observed a body lying face down in the grass,” Larkin wrote. {snip}

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“The person [had] a radio with him, and he was wearing tactical boots, indicating he was possibly involved in illegal activity,” Larkin wrote.

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