Due in no little part to the generosity of strangers, an Arizona rancher charged with murder and other offenses has been released from jail.
George Alan Kelly is charged with first-degree murder and two counts of aggravated assault for allegedly shooting and killing Gabriel Cuen-Butimea, an illegal immigrant who had entered his property near the U.S.-Mexico border.
The entire incident occurred at Kelly’s property near the border town of Nogales.
Fox News confirmed with Chief Deputy Gerardo Castillo of the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office that Kelly posted bond on Wednesday.
Kelly was first hit with a $1 million bond, a pretty excessive amount that he was certain he could not raise. Nonetheless, the rancher appeared to be more concerned with his wife and the operation of his ranch than with his personal well-being in jail:
“She’s there by herself,” Kelly reportedly pleaded at a court hearing, referencing his elderly wife left to fend for herself. “Nobody to take care of her, the livestock or the ranch. And I’m not going anywhere. I can’t come up with a million dollars.”
To a degree, Kelly looks to be accurate. He was unable to raise one million dollars.
But that’s where those aforementioned strangers jumped in.
A crowdsourcing effort on the Christian donation website GiveSendGo (launched after GoFundMe booted Kelly and his supporters to the curb) surpassed its initial fundraising target to assist the Arizona rancher.
Established by a “Shannon Pritchard,” it appears her intended target of $25,000 was absolutely obliterated when people starting receiving wind of Kelly’s dilemma.
“I thank all of you so very much for your generosity. This campaign started out to raise 25k, and we are almost at 250k! Astounding, miraculous, a blessing to the Kelly family beyond belief. Donations are understandably slowing down, so I am going to set the new, and last, goal to reach that $250,000.00 mark,” Pritchard wrote in a post on the donation page.
Kelly’s GiveSendGo website has raised $327,249 as of the time of writing, indicating that Pritchard could have easily added another $50,000 to her “new and last goal.”
More on this story via The Western Journal:
A separate GiveSendGo page set up for Kelly has helped raise an additional $51,308 as of this writing. (That donation page has a stated goal of $1,000,000.)
Kelly’s entire ordeal has been an up-and-down saga, as new details have emerged and both sides present their case. CONTINUE READING…