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an outstanding california A farmer who fatally shot his estranged wife at their home in an eastern Arizona mountain community has pleaded not guilty to murder charges.
Michael Abatti, 63, made his first court appearance Wednesday in Navajo County Superior Court since his extradition from El Centro, Calif., where he was arrested in Arizona on a charge of murdering Kerri Ann Abatti. She was found dead in a home in Pinetop, Arizona, where she moved after splitting from her husband.
While prosecutors said Michael Abatti was being held in the Navajo County Jail on $5.5 million bail, one of his attorneys, Owen Roth, said his client could post bail.
Investigators said Michael Abati traveled from El Centro to Pinetop on Nov. 20, carried out the killings, and returned to California early the next morning.
Kerri Abatti, a descendant of early Latter-day Saint settlers who helped found Pinetop in the 1880s, had filed for divorce and proceedings were pending in California at the time of her death.
Michael Abatti comes from the crop-rich Imperial Valley, where farmers have passed down generations and is the largest user of crops. colorado river Water, famous for growing leafy green vegetables, melons and fodder crops. His grandfather was a Italian Immigrant, was one of the area’s early settlers, and his father helped found the Imperial Valley Vegetable Growers Association.
The couple, who married in 1992 and had three children, separated in 2023 and feuded over finances in divorce proceedings.