Mexico wanted first-degree murder charges against Arizona rancher

The move came after prosecutors lowered Kelly’s charge to a single count of first-degree murder, which would have required a finding of premeditated intent to kill and could have led to a death sentence.

Mexico’s consular protection chief, Vanessa Calva, said Mexico had told US prosecutors her country believed the first-degree charges more accurately described the circumstances of Cuen-Buitimea’s death.

She said Cuen-Buitimea was unarmed, fleeing and had been shot in the back.

Cuen-Buitimea was a 48-year-old man from Nogales, Mexico, who was among several migrants the rancher is accused of shooting.

The judge ruled that Kelly, 74, could remain free on $1 million bail pending arraignment on March 6, with restrictions such as no contact with witnesses or Cuen-Buitimea’s family and a ban on owning firearms.

Deputy Chief County District Attorney Kimberly Hunley told the judge prosecutors intended to prove second-degree murder – which Kelly had no reason to shoot “intentionally, knowingly or in reckless circumstances” with an AK-47 rifle on about eight unarmed migrants about 80 to 100 yards (meters).

“There is no justification for shooting an unarmed man in the back,” Hunley told the judge.

Kelly’s attorney, Brenna Larkin, said her client fired into the air over the migrants. She said Kelly feared for his safety and that of his wife and for the property, and that he saw people with guns and backpacks crossing his property.

Kelly apparently wrote about his life as a rancher in the borderlands in the self-published “Far Beyond the Border Fence,” described on Amazon.com as a “contemporary novel that brings the Mexican border/drug conflict into the 21st century”.

The shooting has stirred emotions as the national debate over border security heats up ahead of the 2024 presidential election.

Less than six months ago, a prison guard and his brother were arrested in a shooting in West Texas in which a migrant was killed and another injured. Michael and Mark Sheppard, both 60, were charged with manslaughter in the September shooting.