George Alan Kelly, the 73-year-old rancher from Arizona who was arrested for shooting to death an illegal alien, has been released on a $1 million bail.
Kelly was able to post the bail because the Christian fundraising site GiveSendGo allowed raising funds for his legal defense after the popular GoFundme denied him the platform for fundraising.
On January 30, Kelly shot dead 48-year-old Gabriel Cuen-Butimea, an illegal alien from Mexico, who trespassed on his property in Nogales in Santa Cruz County near the US-Mexico border.
Cuen-Buitimea had been deported to Mexico multiple times in the past, but he kept crossing the border and entering the U.S. illegally. Kelly was arrested and charged with first-degree murder for “unprovoked” killing of a migrant.
As Kelly was held on a $1 million bond, a fundraising campaign was set up to pay his legal expenses on the popular fundraising site GoFundMe. But the site soon took the page down, citing their policy that fundraising campaigns for the legal defense of someone charged with murder are not allowed on their platform. That is when the Christian conservative fundraising site GiveSendGo came to help Kelly collect donations for his legal defense.
On the GiveSendGo fundraising page, the senior rancher was described as a patriot. Donors praised Kelly as an American hero and posted prayers for him and his family. One supporter wrote:
“Praying every day for Mr. Kelly, his family and lawyers. The government should be protecting people like Mr. Kelly, not allowing foreigners to overrun border counties!”
Through GiveSendGo, Kelly was able to raise well over $300,000, exceeding his expectations of raising at least $25,000. Shannon Pritchard, who set up the fund-raiser for Kelly, wrote:
“This is amazing, when I started this campaign, I set a goal of 25k and thought it would be hard to reach. But the injustice shown to Mr. Kelly has moved many hundreds of Christian Patriots to rally to his defense.”
The judge declined Kelly’s initial request to lower his bail so he could go and take care of his land and his wife, who was left alone after his arrest with no one to care for her. Later, however, the charges against Kelly were downgraded from first-degree to second-degree murder.
Through his attorney, Brenna Larkin, Kelly has pleaded not guilty to the charges. Kelly has received a significant amount of support on social media, with many Twitter users calling his act of shooting the illegal alien his constitutional right to self-defense. They have also questioned why Kelly was being prosecuted as a potential criminal.