A marketing consultant for Arizona rancher George Alan Kelly’s protection crew instructed Fox Information Digital that they consider the homicide investigation was mired by “cartel influence,” as Santa Cruz County Sheriff David Hathaway is predicted to take the stand this week to testify about touring across the border to Mexico to interview the prosecution’s essential witness.
Hathaway, who the protection told the judge final week they plan to name as a witness, was notably featured in a YouTube video revealed a couple of month in the past by actual property agent Sydney Wilburn, who goes by Large Tremendous on-line, wherein the sheriff provides a tour of his dwelling and the borderlands neighborhood the place his household has resided for the reason that 1800s.
The sheriff referenced the Kelly case on digital camera, with out utilizing the rancher’s title, describing how “there are people that’ll come to the border thinking they’re going to find some action.”
“Like, we had a rancher here that had been writing fan fiction on Amazon, and he was describing himself hunting migrants with his AK-47, and he actually even used his name, and his wife’s name, and his ranch’s name, and he came from somewhere else,” Hathaway mentioned. “Then we caught him out there actually shooting at some people out there, shooting at some migrants, killed one of them, and one of them got away, so now he’s being prosecuted for homicide in the county.”
George Alan Kelly enters court docket for his preliminary listening to in Nogales Justice Courtroom in Nogales, Arizona, Feb. 22, 2023. (Mark Henle/The Arizona Republic by way of AP, Pool, File)
Strolling his property, and chatting with the digital camera, the sheriff continued, “That’s an example of a guy with that mentality. They come out here, and they want to say, ‘I’m out here in the Wild West,’ and they want to have a big tough story to tell. ‘I’m gonna go out there, and hunt me some Mexicans,’ you know? And that appeals to some people, but that’s not a common thing.”
“He’s an extremist,” Wilburn, who has 120,000 YouTube subscribers, chimes in from off-camera.
“Yeah, you would not see people like that,” Hathaway added within the 52-minute video seen by Fox Information Digital. “It’s not like there’s a bunch of groups wandering around with that attitude.”
Fox Information Digital reached out to Hathaway for remark, however he didn’t instantly reply.
Dr. Ron Martinelli, a forensic criminologist who’s working pro-bono for the Kelly protection as their lead marketing consultant with the forensic loss of life investigation, instructed Fox Information Digital that “these are completely inappropriate, prejudicial and extremely biased statements about a criminal defendant.”
The marketing consultant mentioned the video was referencing Kelly as a result of, though Hathaway didn’t point out Kelly by title, the sheriff had been “literally driving through Mr. Kelly’s neighborhood.”
“But what is Mr. Kelly’s motive? So we have a rancher on a very nice ranch with an impeccable background of cooperation with law enforcement. He’s never been in trouble in his life. And according to Sheriff Hathaway and the state’s theory of criminality, Mr. Kelly woke up one morning and just decided he was going to kill him, a Mexican?” Martinelli mentioned. “That’s absurd.”
ARIZONA RANCHER GEORGE ALAN KELLY TRIAL WITNESS ADMITS TO DRUG SMUGGLING
Kelly’s spouse testified earlier within the trial that she noticed a gaggle of armed males wearing camouflage and carrying packs close to their residence on their 170-acre cattle ranch close to Keno Springs exterior Nogales, Arizona, earlier than calling Border Patrol. Her husband went exterior, and based on the protection, fired warning pictures into the air.
Legislation enforcement responded, and hours handed earlier than Kelly called for help again to report discovering Gabriel Cuen-Buitimea’s physique on his property on Jan. 30, 2023.
Kelly was charged with first-degree premeditated homicide and held on $1 million bond for weeks because the case gained nationwide scrutiny. The best cost was later downgraded to second-degree homicide.
Final week, Santa Cruz County Det. Mario Barba testified that he accompanied Hathaway to Mexico to interview Daniel Ramirez, the prosecution’s key witness who claims to have seen first-hand when Buitimea was shot on Kelly’s ranch earlier than fleeing throughout the border. Weeks after the capturing, Hathaway organized a gathering with Ramirez at a lodge in Nogales, Mexico, and although the sheriff interviewed him for about 40 minutes, he solely recorded about six minutes, Barba mentioned. The detective mentioned Ramirez “couldn’t cross into the United States legally” to be interviewed.
“You could possibly have spoken to Mexican officials to rearrange one thing? Right?” Kelly’s protection lawyer, Brenna Larkin, requested.
Santa Cruz County Chief Deputy Lawyer Kim Hunley listens as she performs a 911 name for the jury throughout George Alan Kelly’s trial at Santa Cruz County Superior Courtroom on Friday, March 22, 2024, in Nogales, Arizona. (Angela Gervasi/Nogales Worldwide by way of AP, Pool)
“Correct,” the detective responded.
“And you didn’t do that. Did you?” Larkin mentioned.
Barba replied, “No.”
Taking the stand earlier within the trial, Ramirez admitted that he beforehand carried medication throughout the border earlier than and had been deported a number of instances.
The protection believes that the folks contacted by the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Workplace to conduct their investigation into Kelly’s case are associated or related to the Sinaloa Cartel, Martinelli mentioned.
“The Sinaloa Cartel and Manos Malas, an organized crime ring which is in league with Sinaloa, do not allow independent drug smugglers. So you have to be associated with the cartel,” Martinelli mentioned. “When they meet with him, that was actually facilitated by another convicted, twice convicted felon — one of his last convictions that he did prison time for was bringing guns across the border.”
George Alan Kelly, proper, exits the Santa Cruz County Courthouse with protection lawyer Kathy Lowthorp, Friday, March 22, 2024, in Nogales, Arizona. (Angela Gervasi/Nogales Worldwide by way of AP, Pool)
“The false narrative is out there that Buitimea and all these so-called witnesses are people seeking the American dream. Migrants seeking the American Dream do not smuggle drugs across the border or smuggle weapons across the border. And again, that is an indication of cartel influence, cartel membership,” the marketing consultant mentioned. “That has nothing to do with the narrative that the prosecutor and the sheriff were putting out there, that Mr. Buitimea was an innocent migrant seeking the American Dream.”
Whereas with Barba in Mexico, Hathway launched himself because the supervising investigator within the case, Martinelli instructed Fox Information Digital, that means “he is the supervising investigator in an international investigation that he initiated in a foreign country.” The protection believes that was a violation of U.S. State Division protocols, in addition to Mexican regulation created by Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and the nation’s legislature offering tips for U.S. authorities whereas conducting prison investigations in Mexico.
George Alan Kelly listens to the prosecution throughout opening arguments at Santa Cruz County Superior Courtroom Friday, March 22, 2024 in Nogales, Arizona. (Angela Gervasi/Nogales Worldwide, by way of AP)
“There is no evidence he ever advised the Mexican government or requested permission to enter the country to conduct an international homicide investigation involving Mexican nationals. And that includes the federal police. The Mexican federal police,” Martinelli mentioned. “What we want to find out today is how that meeting came about. How did they cross into Mexico? You know, did they drive there in a marked car? Were they in uniform with, you know with their, even plainclothes, with their badges and firearms? How did that take place? Because procedurally, that’s a huge thing.”
Additionally on digital camera in the identical YouTube video, Hathaway mentioned that the U.S. Supreme Courtroom has dominated that Border Patrol can search, detain and interrogate anyone inside 100 miles of the U.S. worldwide border.
“And the Supreme Court had called that extended border search authority,” Hathway mentioned. “To me, it’s a real problem to have a policy like that within the U.S. government because this is supposed to be America. This is supposed to be a free country, right? I mean, you shouldn’t have people who can pull you over for no reason like they’re the Gestapo or something like that. For me, that’s a problem.”
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Hathaway additionally went on to criticize the sheriffs of different neighboring counties for decrying the border disaster.
“He minimizes the victimization of migrants coming across the border. The rape of migrants. The murder and the robberies of migrants,” Martinelli mentioned. “But at the same time, he is enjoying a financial grant from DHS to patrol the border with his deputies… He doesn’t have any problem taking money from the United States government for his deputies’ patrol.”
