Gabriel Paul Horcasitas was convicted over the 2021 shooting of Christopher Pelkey during a road-rage encounter. At his May 2025 sentencing, an AI recreation of Pelkey told Horcasitas: “In another life we probably could have been friends,” and expressed forgiveness.

The Arizona Court of Appeals said the video had “clearly impacted the sentencing judge”, who said he “loved” it – and felt it was “genuine”.

The three-judge panel ruled that its admission constituted “fundamental error”, but upheld Horcasitas’s manslaughter conviction.

The court said the video had influenced sentencing, although the record did not show precisely how. The manslaughter sentence was vacated and the case remanded for resentencing.