An Imperial Valley farmer involved in a bitter divorce involving a $200 million trust drove to Arizona and shot his ex-wife to death in the middle of the night, according to prosecutors and court documents published in The Times this week.
In law enforcement affidavits seeking to collect DNA and weapons and search the properties of influential farmer Michael Abatti, investigators lay out a detailed narrative of how his ex-wife, Kerri Ann Abatti, was murdered.
They also detail the movements of Michael Abatti's Ford pickup truck on the day of the shooting, his subsequent suicide attempt, and provide an intimate look at a couple and family in the midst of a contentious divorce, one that had been in the works for roughly three years with no end in sight.
The Abattis are wealthy landowners and farmers in the Imperial Valley. The documents stipulate that the couple had a trust worth $200 million, all of which would pass to Michael in the event of Kerri's death. The couple has three adult children together.
The affidavits were initially sealed at the request of the Imperial County Sheriff's Office; There were concerns that if details of the investigation were revealed, evidence could be destroyed. Lawyers for the Times requested that the seal be unsealed, and on Thursday the documents with redacted personal material were unsealed. The county did not provide the documents to the Times until Monday.
Michael Abatti's attorneys, Owen Roth and Danni Iredale, who disagreed with the court's decision to unseal the documents, said in a statement that they believe the decision unduly jeopardizes Abatti's fundamental right to a fair trial.
“Search warrants are unproven unilateral submissions intended to establish probable cause, one of the lowest standards of proof in the law,” they wrote. They urged the public to remember that Abatti is “innocent unless proven guilty” and that, like anyone accused of a crime, he has the right to a trial by a fair and impartial jury.
Abatti, 63, owns a large agricultural operation in the Imperial Valley, where crops such as sugar beets, alfalfa and melons are grown.
He has been an influential figure in the community; He served as a board member of the Imperial Irrigation District from 2006 to 2010 and later sued the district in a water rights dispute. His family has lived and farmed in the region since the 1920s and together they are considered one of the largest landowners in the area.
On November 20, his wife, Kerri Abatti, 59, was killed in their 7,000-square-foot home in Pinetop-Lakeside, Arizona, by a gunshot wound to the face.
According to the affidavit, her nephew, William Robbins, who lived in the home, was in his bedroom that night when he heard a loud bang. He found her lying in the dining room, unconscious and “bleeding from the face.”
According to the documents, Robbins “appeared terrified for his own safety under the circumstances.” He called 911.
First responders arrived and reported a bullet hole in one of the dining room windows. She was transported to a hospital where she was pronounced dead.
Authorities arrived shortly after and deduced that the shot must have come from outside, possibly from an area 30 meters away where a weapons detection dog alerted the next day. No firearms or bullet casings were found. A reconstruction of the shooting indicated that the bullet that killed Kerri came from a “higher-powered rifle.”
According to the documents, Kerri's family attempted to contact Michael the night she died to inform him of her death, but they were unable to contact him. Michael Abatti's family said he was “hunting in the desert” at the time, according to the affidavit.
License plate readers indicated that a 2017 Ford pickup truck belonging to Abatti was “exhibiting a travel pattern” between California and Arizona the night his ex-wife was killed. The shooting at Kerri Abatti's home was reported at around 9:19 p.m.
According to the search warrant affidavit, Abatti's truck was seen at license plate readers on Nov. 20 heading south in El Centro, leaving the area of his hunting grounds around 1:30 p.m. She was spotted at license plate readers in Globe, Arizona, around 6:30 p.m. local time.
The truck was seen again in Globe at 11:41 p.m., according to the affidavit. He was then spotted near Abatti's hunting grounds in California around 4:40 a.m. the next morning.
Pinetop-Lakeside is located approximately eight hours east of El Centro and two hours north of Globe.
On November 23, Imperial County Sheriff's Office deputies were notified that Michael attempted suicide at his farm in El Centro. He called 911.
First responders reported that he told them he “attempted to commit suicide due to an incident involving his wife,” according to the affidavit. He also told them he was depressed because she had died and his children were “going through things.”
At the time Kerri Abatti was murdered, the couple was working on how to divide assets in the divorce, according to the affidavit. She wanted the house in Arizona while he would keep the others, causing him to owe her about $10 million in the divorce because of different property values, investigators wrote. The Arizona property was to be appraised two days after Kerri Abatti's murder, according to the affidavit.
When authorities searched Michael Abatti's property, they took possession of more than three dozen firearms, including more than two dozen rifles, as well as shotguns, pistols and revolvers.
Abatti was arrested in El Centro four weeks after the shooting. He pleaded not guilty to a charge of first-degree murder on Dec. 31 in Navajo County Superior Court. Bail was set at $5.5 million.
Michael Abatti's attorneys declined to comment on his health or current whereabouts.
In a statement, they said they remained “deeply concerned about his health and well-being.”
