An Arizona judge on July 9 dismissed with prejudice the murder case against an elderly ranch owner charged in the shooting death of an illegal immigrant on Jan. 30, 2023.

In a 12-page decision, Santa Cruz County Superior Court Judge Thomas Fink said the prosecution failed to present evidence to convict Nogales resident George Alan Kelly, 75, of second-degree murder and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

The jury, following a monthlong trial, also could not reach a verdict on the lesser included offenses of manslaughter and negligent homicide.

On April 19, the judge declared a mistrial.

The judge, in the July 9 decision, wrote that including the lesser offenses pointed to the inherent “weakness” of the state’s case.

Prosecution attorneys had filed a motion to dismiss the case without prejudice, leaving the door open to retry the defendant at a future date if the evidence or “political situation” changed.

However, Judge Fink said a procedural rule required scheduling a new trial within 60 days of the declared mistrial.

He said that to leave the case open-ended amounted to “harassment” of the defendant and gave the prosecution an unfair advantage.

“The court finds that the state is not able to articulate a reasonable basis for holding this case ‘open’ with a dismissal without prejudice,” Judge Fink wrote.

“The interests of justice are not advanced where the only thing to be accomplished by a dismissal without prejudice, where there is no possibility that a re-trial will occur, is the harassment of the defendant.

“For those reasons, the interests of justice call for finality.”