Judge OK’s Arizona rancher trial in Mexican migrant killing

By TERRY TANG and KEN RITTER
Associated Press

PHOENIX (AP) — A judge has ruled that an Arizona rancher accused of shooting at a group of migrants on his property and killing a man will face trial on second-degree murder and aggravated assault charges. The judge in Santa Cruz County heard several hours of testimony Friday about the Jan. 30 shooting near the U.S.-Mexico border that left Gabriel Cuen-Buitimea dead on George Alan Kelly’s ranch outside Nogales, Arizona. Kelly is free on $1 million bond pending his March 6 arraignment. Cuen-Buitimea was 48 and lived in Nogales, Mexico. A Mexican man who was with him testified through an interpreter that they were running from gunfire when Cuen-Buitimea said he had been shot, fell and died.