Arizona court tosses sentence in road rage case over AI victim video

An Arizona man’s 10-year manslaughter sentence was thrown out in a case where a video generated by artificial intelligence portrayed the deceased victim addressing a judge before the sentence was announced.

In a decision released Wednesday, viewed and obtained by Global News, the Arizona Court of Appeals concluded Gabriel Paul Horcasitas must be resentenced in the 2021 shooting death of Christopher Pelkey due to the AI video.

In May 2025, a digitally regenerated version of Pelkey spoke to the court room and Horcasitas ahead of his sentencing.

In what’s believed to be a first in U.S. courts, Pelkey’s family used AI to create a video of his likeness to give him a voice. Pelkey’s sister, Stacey Wales, raised the idea of her brother speaking for himself after struggling to figure out what he would say.

“To Gabriel Horcasitas, the man who shot me, it is a shame we encountered each other that day in those circumstances. In another life we probably could have been friends,” the AI said.

“I believe in forgiveness and a God who forgives. I always have, and I still do,” the AI added.

Authorities say Horcasitas fatally shot Pelkey during a November 2021 road rage encounter at a stoplight in Chandler, a suburb of Phoenix. Pelkey, who was unarmed, was allegedly shot after getting out of his truck and walking toward Horcasitas’ vehicle.

Horcasitas was convicted of manslaughter in Pelkey’s death and endangerment for a gunshot that struck another vehicle at the intersection during the encounter.

This week, the court deemed that the “AI video wasn’t reliable.”

“We affirm the conviction, rejecting Horcasitas’s argument that the court erred in precluding text messages obtained from the victim’s phone. We vacate the manslaughter sentence and remand for resentencing because the AI video was not reliable,” Williams added.

After the AI video was played in the court room, the judge said, “I loved that AI. Thank you for that, and as angry as you are and justifiably angry as the family is, I heard the forgiveness and I know Mr. Horcasitas appreciated it, but so did I,” according to the court documents.

“Horcasitas argues he was deprived of due process because the sentencing court heard and relied on the AI video,” the court documents added.

Horcasitas argued that the AI video was “inadmissible” and “carried undue emotional weight.”

The three-judge panel wrote that allowing the presentation of the AI video “constituted fundamental error.”

“It clearly impacted the sentencing judge, who said he ‘loved’ the video and felt it ‘was genuine,’ pointing to the AI victim’s ‘obvious forgiveness’ of Horcasitas, which he characterized as coming from the AI victim’s ‘heart,'” the three-judge panel wrote. “While the record does not reflect precisely how the AI video factored into sentencing calculus, there is no question it played a role.”

“For the foregoing reasons, we affirm the manslaughter conviction but vacate the sentence for manslaughter, and remand for resentencing,” the judges added.

Horcasitas resentencing date has yet to be scheduled.