In a decision released Wednesday, the Arizona Court of Appeals concluded Gabriel Paul Horcasitas must be resentenced in the 2021 shooting death of Christopher Pelkey because the AI video wasn’t reliable.

The court found the video crossed the line, saying it didn’t reflect actual events and presented statements made in the footage as coming directly from the victim.

“Indeed, 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 three-judge panel wrote.

Jessica Gattuso, an attorney who represented victims in the case, and Kristen Reller, Horcasitas’ lawyer, declined to comment Thursday on the decision.

Reller had argued Superior Court Judge Todd Lang violated due process protections by relying on AI evidence. Gattuso and prosecutors told the appeals court that the lower-court judge didn’t err, saying the footage was an accurate representation of Pelkey’s character.

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.

Wales expected an appeal on the sentence and was disappointed the AI video was cited as the reason, saying her only goal was to humanize her brother for the judge. “It feels unfair because there is a convicted murderer sitting in prison that has blankets and walls of protection around their rights. Where are the rights for the victim?” Wales said.

A victim appeals lawyer has told the family that using AI again could result in another appeal. “We will continue to let his voice be heard in whatever allowable medium we can convey that through the court system,” Wales said.

The AI-generated victim impact statement was played during a May 2025 sentencing hearing after nine of Pelkey’s family members and friends stood before the judge describing how emotionally devastated they were by his killing.

Authorities say Horcasitas, 55, fatally shot Pelkey, 37, during a November 2021 road rage encounter at a stoplight in Chandler, a suburb of Phoenix. Pelkey, who was unarmed, was 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.

The AI rendering of Pelkey said he wished he could still be with his friends and family, voiced a belief in forgiveness and said it was a shame Horcasitas had encountered him because “in another life, we probably could have been friends.” The video didn’t request a specific prison sentence.

Horcasitas’ appellate lawyer argued her client had no meaningful opportunity to rebut material in the AI-generated video.

It’s not clear if attorneys or the court were aware in advance that an AI-generated video would be used. But attorneys representing Pelkey’s family said in court records that Arizona law does not require victims to disclose statements they plan to make in court to prosecutors, defense attorneys or the judge — and that victims can exercise their rights by speaking before the court or submitting statements that are written or recorded on audio or video.

In a statement Thursday, the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office said its prosecutors knew the victim’s family would address the court during sentencing but weren’t aware of the nature of it.

While the use of AI within the court system is expanding, it’s typically been reserved for administrative tasks, legal research and case preparation. In Arizona, it’s helped inform the public of rulings in significant cases.

But using AI to generate victim impact statements marks a new tool for sharing information with the court outside the evidentiary phases.

Reller told the appeals court that the video doesn’t disclose who wrote the words used by the AI version of Pelkey and wasn’t backed up with evidence establishing that its contents accurately reflected Pelkey’s views. It also had an “undue emotional weight” and conveyed an authenticity that wouldn’t have been there had a family member read the same words aloud, Reller said.

Horcasitas’ lawyer contended the judge weighed the statements made in the AI-generated video when deciding on a sentence, but prosecutors argued Lang didn’t consider the footage when issuing the punishment.

Shortly before delivering the sentence, the judge commented that he “loved that AI” but didn’t say from the bench whether the video factored into his decision. Lang said he felt Pelkey’s “obvious forgiveness of Mr. Horcasitas reflects the character I heard about today.”

The family’s lawyers say the judge was already inundated with relevant information from Pelkey’s family and friends before the AI video was played — and that nothing in the video was inflammatory. Horcasitas’ attorney didn’t object to the AI video.

Graphics processing units (GPUs) are the most important data center chips for processing artificial intelligence (AI) workloads, which is why investors have piled into suppliers like Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices over the last few years. However, GPUs require an increasing amount of high-bandwidth memory (HBM) to keep data flowing smoothly. Without it, bottlenecks would throttle the performance of AI chatbots and agents.

Micron Technology (MU -2.05%) is one of the world’s top suppliers of memory, and it’s experiencing significant AI-related demand across multiple categories, including the data center. As a result, its revenue and earnings are growing at an explosive rate, fueling a whopping 500% gain in its stock over the last 12 months (as of the market close on Thursday, Oct. 1).

Can the rally continue, or have investors already priced in most of the company’s future growth?

Micron just reported a blockbuster set of results for fiscal 2026

Micron wrapped up its 2026 fiscal year on Sept. 3. The company generated a record $133.1 billion in total revenue, a staggering 256% increase from the previous year. That growth rate accelerated significantly from fiscal 2025 when revenue increased by 49%.

AI-related demand for memory fueled the incredible result, and it didn’t come solely from the data center industry. Below are Micron’s four business units, their fiscal 2026 revenue, and their growth rates.

Data source: Micron Technology.

The cloud memory segment is where Micron accounts for memory sales to hyperscale customers (including companies like Amazon and Microsoft), as well as HBM sales to all data center customers. The core data center business includes sales of storage and non-HBM memory solutions to data center operators.

The mobile and client segment includes memory sales to manufacturers of smartphones and personal computers. This is an increasingly important category because AI models are quickly becoming more efficient, so many devices can now process them locally rather than relying on external data centers.

Finally, the automotive and embedded business is where Micron accounts for memory sales to car and robot manufacturers. The company says vehicles fitted with Level 4 autonomous capabilities (full self-driving) require more than double the memory and storage capacity than vehicles with older Level 2 and Level 3 technologies. Moreover, humanoid robots are expected to use as much memory as Level 4 autonomous vehicles, so both of these emerging industries present Micron with an enormous opportunity.

In a series of prepared remarks to shareholders released on Sept. 30, Micron Chief Executive Sanjay Mehrotra said memory supply could be even tighter in fiscal 2027 and fiscal 2028 compared to fiscal 2026, suggesting the company’s revenue is likely to continue growing at a brisk pace.

Micron stock is technically cheap, but there’s a catch

The ongoing global shortage of memory is giving suppliers the ability to dictate prices, significantly boosting their profit margins. As a result, Micron’s earnings exploded higher by 879% to $74.33 per share during fiscal 2026. That places its stock at a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of just 14.7, so it’s cheaper than both the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq-100 indexes which trade at P/E ratios of 23.5 and 35.2, respectively.

Wall Street’s average estimate (provided by Yahoo! Finance) suggests Micron could grow its earnings to $176.69 per share in fiscal 2027, placing its stock at a forward P/E of just 6.2. But why is a company growing at Micron’s pace trading at such a steep discount to the broader market? Simply put, the semiconductor industry has always been highly cyclical, so investors know the recent bonanza probably won’t last forever.

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