The home of Michael Abatti is seen Friday, Dec. 12, 2025, in El Centro, Calif. A sign memorializing Charlie Kirk can be seen on the lawn.

A member of one of California’s most influential farming families has been taken into custody on suspicion of killing his longtime partner in the midst of their divorce. Michael Abatti, 63, is in custody in an Imperial County lockup, awaiting extradition to Arizona. 

On Nov. 20, sheriff’s deputies were called to Bruin Way in Pinetop, a tiny Arizona resort town. Off the main road, onto a dirt driveway, deputies arrived at the home of Kerri Ann Abatti. The 59-year-old had recently moved back to her hometown after separating from Mike Abatti, her husband of over three decades. Inside the residence, deputies found Kerri dying of a gunshot wound; she was taken to a nearby hospital, where she was pronounced deceased. 

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The Abattis are no ordinary family. For over a century, they have been one of the dominant players in California’s Imperial Valley. The area was once one of California’s most unlivable regions, but everything changed when the Hoover Dam was finished in 1935, bringing water to it. Five years later, the Abattis helped facilitate the opening of the All-American Canal, an aqueduct that funnels water from the Colorado River into the valley. The aqueduct turned the Abattis........

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