AI-Generated Video Of Dead Arizona Victim Upends Manslaughter Sentence

A man sentenced to a decade in prison for manslaughter must be resentenced after an Arizona appeals court ruled that a video statement delivered by an AI-generated version of the dead victim can’t be considered reliable. The decision reflects the growing debate over when, and how, it’s appropriate to use artificial intelligence in court cases.

Gabriel Paul Horcasitas, 55, was convicted in the 2021 shooting death of Christopher Pelkey during a road rage altercation in Phoenix. In May 2025, the judge sentenced Horcasitas to 10.5 years behind bars after considering dozens of impact statements submitted to the court by Pelkey’s family and friends. One statement, believed to be the first of its kind in a U.S. courtroom, came in the form of an AI-generated video of the victim himself, featuring his likeness and digitally recreated voice.

The video, presented during sentencing, shows real footage of Pelkey, a U.S. Army veteran who was 37 at the time of the shooting, talking about his military service in Iraq and Afghanistan and his faith in God. In the AI-generated segment that appears before and after the recorded snippet, he speaks directly to the man who killed him.

“It is a shame we encountered each other that day in those circumstances,” he says. “In another life, we probably could have been friends. I believe in forgiveness and in God who forgives. I always have and I still do.”

Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Todd Lang, the judge presiding over last year’s sentencing, didn’t say whether the AI-generated statement impacted his decision. He did thank the family for it and said he believed the comments in the video were spoken “from the heart” and aligned with the victim’s character as he understood it after hearing about Pelkey from his family and friends.

Giving The Dead A Voice In Court

Pelkey “was a very opinionated, black and white person,” she added. “You knew where he stood on every issue. It was clear to envision what he would have thought about this.”