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Court Tosses Sentence After A.I. Video of Victim ‘Forgiving’ His Killer Is Played
Developing
In Short: The AI video, created by the victim's family, depicted the victim addressing the killer, Gabriel Horcasitas, directly.
An Arizona man convicted of killing another driver in a road rage shooting will face resentencing after an appeals court ruled that an AI-generated video of his dead victim should not have been considered during sentencing.
The Arizona Court of Appeals found that the video went beyond simply preserving or presenting something the victim had said while alive.
"Rather than document 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," the appeals court wrote in its ruling.
The court's decision does not overturn Horcasitas' manslaughter conviction but does invalidate his 10-year sentence.
Horcasitas' appeal attorney, Kristen Reller, declined to comment on the new ruling, while an attorney representing victims in the case did not respond to a request for comment.
What's still developing
- His attorneys appealed the sentence, challenging the use of an AI-generated victim impact video created by Pelkey's family and shown in court before Horcasitas received his punishment.
- "To Gabriel Horcasitas, the man who shot me, it is a shame we encountered each other that day in those circumstances," the AI version of Pelkey said.
- Horcasitas was later sentenced to 10 years in prison.
- The AI recreation appeared in court wearing a gray baseball cap and directly addressed Horcasitas.
- Instead, his 10-year sentence has been tossed, and he will return to court to be sentenced again.
- "In another life, we probably could have been friends."