George Alan Kelly, an Arizona rancher who was accused of killing an undocumented immigrant alleged to have run across his property, is receiving a hero’s welcome in conservative media after his case ended in a mistrial.
Kelly was charged with second-degree murder after an investigation into the shooting of an unarmed man named Gabriel Cuen-Buitimea in 2023. Prosecutors said that Kelly recklessly fired an AK-47 at a group of men on his cattle ranch, while Kelly said that he only fired warning shots in the air.
The trial helped turn him into something of a right-wing icon. But on April 19, the jury in his trial deadlocked. And on Monday, Arizona prosecutors said they won’t retry the case.
Predictably, the news that Kelly will be allowed to walk free has been gleefully shared across conservative media, which has developed a disturbing affinity for cheerleading armed vigilantes and extrajudicial punishment in the age of Donald Trump.
As far-right social media accounts cheer Kelly on, ultraconservative media outlets like Newsmax have portrayed him as a heroic figure. He sat for a softball interview with conservative News Nation reporter Ali Bradley in which he spoke somberly of all the hardships he says he’s experienced as a result of the trial.








