The elderly Arizona rancher accused of gunning down a border crosser with an AK-47 has been released on $1 million bond — helped by nearly $400,000 raised on a Christian fundraising site after GoFundMe refused to just accept campaigns.
George Alan Kelly, 74, was in a position to post bond Wednesday after the judge in his case modified it from money to surety, allowing him to place up his ranch in Nogales near the border with Mexico.
That’s where prosecutors allege Kelly used an AK-47 rifle to shoot at several unarmed migrants on his property on Jan. 30, fatally hitting one in every of them as he tried to flee.
The dead man — Gabriel Cuen-Buitimea, 48 — lived just south of the border in Nogales, Mexico, and has been convicted of illegal entry into the US and deported back to Mexico several times, most recently in 2016.
Prosecutors said that other men with him said they “felt like they were being hunted.”
Kelly’s case quickly sparked fevered debate, with supporters blaming the Biden Administration’s disastrous policies for border-town residents feeling in danger and needing to defend themselves.
As Kelly’s legal team fought to scale back his $1 million bond, GoFundMe shut down all campaigns — and returned money to donors — citing long-standing policies not to assist defend those accused of violent crimes.
Nonetheless, the Christian fundraising platform GiveSendGo has 4 current campaigns for Kelly, raising just over $398,000 by Friday for his legal defense and emergency support for his family.
The primary one had raised greater than $330,000 by Friday — despite getting down to collect a far-more modest $25,000.
“Astounding, miraculous, a blessing to the Kelly family beyond belief,” read the campaign on the location that enables supporters to provide, share or pray.
“It’s a tragedy that a straightforward farmer, who needs to be protected by the federal government has been abandoned and needed to defend himself,” the fundraiser says.
“That’s bad enough, but the federal government that caused this, now wishes to persecute him. … This man mustn’t should spend an evening in jail.”
One other of the fundraisers that claims to have been began by Kelly’s wife of 54 years, Wanda Kelly, received just over $4,000 of her $50,000 goal.
“Alan is a person dedicated to his family, animals, and residential. In his 74 years, he has been an upstanding member of his community and, more importantly, a rock to our family,” she wrote of the “humble person with easy needs.”
“Alan and I live a nightmare. He has been accused of a serious crime, and he’s innocent. … Please help Alan come back home.”
After his release this week, Kelly is due back in Santa Cruz County Justice Court in Nogales early Friday.
The evidentiary hearing is meant to find out problems with material fact within the case and permit Kelly’s defense to call witnesses.
Kelly’s attorney, Brenna Larkin, has maintained that the rancher didn’t shoot and kill Cuen-Buitimea.
Nonetheless, she said Kelly acknowledges that earlier within the day he fired warning shots above the heads of smugglers carrying AK-47 rifles and backpacks on his property.
Kelly faces a a first-degree murder charge in addition to two counts of aggravated assault for allegedly firing at the opposite men.
Kelly apparently drew on his borderlands ranching life in a self-published novel, “Far Beyond the Border Fence,” which is described as a “contemporary novel which brings the Mexican Border/Drug conflict into the twenty first century.”
With Post wires
