NAIROBI, Kenya — In a courtroom moment that felt more like a scene from a sci-fi movie than real life, a man who died in a 2021 road rage shooting in Chandler, Arizona, addressed his killer — through artificial intelligence.
Chris Pelkey, a 37-year-old army veteran and devout Christian, was shot and killed by Gabriel Horcasitas after a traffic confrontation escalated at a red light.
But during the sentencing hearing, Pelkey appeared on screen in an AI-generated video to deliver a powerful, haunting victim impact statement.
“To Gabriel Horcasitas, the man who shot me, it is a shame we encountered each other that day in those circumstances,” said the virtual Pelkey, wearing his signature baseball cap and full beard.
“In another life, we probably could have been friends. I believe in forgiveness, and a God who forgives. I always have, and I still do.”
The video was created by Pelkey’s sister, Stacey Wales, and her husband, using past video and audio clips fed into an AI model to recreate Pelkey’s likeness and voice.
Speaking to ABC-15, Wales said she couldn’t stop thinking about what her brother would have wanted to say. She described the effort as a “Frankenstein of love,” stitched together from memories and tech.
The Superior Court Judge Todd Lang responded warmly to the video, ultimately sentencing Horcasitas to 10 and a half years in prison for manslaughter.
“I loved that AI. Thank you for that,” Lang said. “As angry as you are, as justifiably angry as the family is, I heard the forgiveness. I feel that that was genuine.”
Pelkey’s brother, John, was similarly moved, telling reporters the AI message gave him “waves of healing” and captured his brother’s true spirit. “That was the man I knew,” he said.
While this marks what could be the first instance of AI being used for a victim impact statement, it may not be the last.
The U.S. Judicial Conference has announced plans to seek public input on how to regulate AI-generated evidence in courtrooms, underscoring how technology is pushing legal boundaries in unexpected ways.
For the Pelkey family, though, this wasn’t about innovation — it was about healing.
Through AI, they gave Chris the final word, one of grace and forgiveness, and perhaps helped close a chapter that once seemed impossible to end.
