Arizona rancher accused of killing illegal immigrant pleads not guilty

According to reports, on January 30, a Mexican national was gunned down on the property of an Arizona rancher named George Alan Kelly. On Monday, Mr. Kelly appeared in court on lesser charges of shooting.

Kelly, 73, was initially charged with first-degree murder in connection with the shooting.

The defendant stated that he fired at the migrant only as a warning and that he never fired directly at a person or an armed group of people suspected of smuggling into his territory.

According to a report from CBS affiliate KOLD, Kelly appeared in court again on Monday, where he was charged with second-degree murder and aggravated assault, both of which he pleaded not guilty to.

The trial is due to begin on September 6, as presiding judge Thomas Fink decided.
Requests for comment that were made to Larkin regarding Monday’s hearing did not receive an immediate response.

During a court appearance on February 22, during which Judge Emilio Velasquez approved bail and changed it from cash to bail, Kelly was asked to post bail of one million dollars.

GiveSendGo, a Christian crowdsourcing website, was in charge of fundraising when GoFundMe removed all rancher fundraising efforts from its platform.

During Kelly’s bail hearing, Larkin was highly critical of prosecutors for charging Kelly with first-degree murder before the investigation could be fully completed.

The prosecution alleges that Kelly shot an “unarmed” man in the back “in an unprovoked assault while he was running for his life” more than a hundred yards from Kelly’s home outside of Nogales, which he shared with his wife Wanda for decades.

However, Larkin claims that earlier that day, her client simply fired “warning shots” into the air after seeing a group of armed men moving through the trees near his home on the property.

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