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An Arizona man who was convicted of manslaughter in a road rage shooting saw his sentence vacated over an eerie AI-generated video of his victim that was played in court.
Gabriel Horcasitas, 54, was ordered Wednesday to face resentencing as the Arizona Court of Appeals tossed his 10½-year sentence for his conviction for manslaughter and endangerment in the 2021 shooting of Christopher Pelkey, court records show.
The Court of Appeals found the AI video was “not reliable” and a “fundamental error” that prejudiced the judge and left the sentencing “fundamentally unfair.”
Pelkey appeared to forgive his killer from beyond the grave in the AI-generated video, which was presented before Horcasitas’ sentencing.
Pelkey’s digital resurrection, created by his family, showed him in a logo-less gray ball cap, an olive green zip-up hoodie and a full, ruddy beard — his mouth not always keeping up with his words as he addressed the man who killed him.
“I believe in forgiveness and God who forgives. I always have, and still do,” the AI version of the 37-year-old said.
The video showed a real photo of Pelkey run through an “old age” filter.
Pelkey’s sister, Stacey Wales, wrote the script the AI version of her late brother delivered, telling AZ Family she wanted to give him a voice in the case over his death.
After the video played, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Todd Lang said he “loved that AI,” calling it “genuine.”
Lang said the stunt gave Pelkey a chance “to speak from his heart” — before hitting Horcasitas with more than 10 years behind bars, going beyond what prosecutors asked for.
The court noted that “no Arizona case has addressed the admissibility of an AI-generated depiction of a victim offered as a victim impact statement.”
The Court of Appeals said it was “guided by” the Arizona Supreme Court’s analysis in State v. Rose, according to court documents.
Edward James Rose, sentenced to death for the 2007 killing of a Phoenix police officer, challenged photos of the officer’s sons at his grave as too prejudicial — but the Arizona Supreme Court ruled they came “uncomfortably close” to crossing the line without going over it.
“By contrast, the AI video crossed that line. Unlike the photographs in Rose, which captured a particularly poignant moment for the young surviving victims, the AI video here (excluding the embedded ‘real’ videos of the victim) does not reflect actual events,” the court wrote Wednesday.
“Indeed, rather than documenting an event or recording a particular moment, the AI video presents a depiction of the victim and his thoughts created from the imaginings of the victim’s sister.”
Horcasitas shot and killed Pelkey in 2021 after Pelkey walked up to his car during a road rage confrontation in Chandler, about 25 miles outside Phoenix.
While the court upheld Horcasitas’ manslaughter conviction, it vacated his prison sentence and ordered that he be resentenced. Horcasitas was first convicted of manslaughter and endangerment in 2023 and was granted a new trial over a prosecution evidence-disclosure failure — only to be found guilty of both charges again in the 2025 retrial.
His resentencing date has yet to be decided.