Sentencing of Killer of One Human Casualty of Arizona’s S.B. 1070: Juan Varela

A Phoenix, Arizona man convicted of shooting his neighbor to death was sentenced Tuesday to 27.5 years in prison.  Juan Varela was watering a tree in his front yard on May 6, 2010, in the midst of the public turmoil over Arizona’s S.B. 1070, when Gary Kelley shot him with a snub-nosed revolver.  Police reported that Kelley had repeated a racial slur several times and told Varela to “go back to Mexico” or he would die.

At the sentencing hearing, Kelley expressed remorse and told the victim’s family that “he does not hate Mexicans” and is not a racist.

At least for a time, hate crimes against Latinos — and some killings (here and here) — had risen as anti-immigrant, at times anti-Mexican, movements had been agitating for tougher immigration enforcement.

KJ