Arizona road rage victim speaks to killer through artificial intelligence

PHOENIX - "To Gabriel Horcasitas, the man who shot me: it is a shame we encountered each other that day in those circumstances."

That was Chris Pelkey's voice and likeness ringing out in a courtroom three and a half years after his death – but how?

We'll let Chris tell you.

"I'm a version of Chris Pelkey recreated through AI that uses my picture and my voice profile."

The backstory:

The artificial intelligence generated video – an idea that initially came to Chris' big sister Stacey Wales as she collected victim impact statements and prepared her own.

"We received 49 letters that the judge was able to read before walking into sentencing that day. But there was one missing piece. There was one voice that was not in those letters," she said.

So Stacey turned to her husband Tim and their friend Scott Yentzer, who together have been working with artificial intelligence tech for years.

The process to bring Chris back, though painstaking, from a technological standpoint.

"There's no tool out there that you can just go and say, here's a voice file. Here's a picture. Please make it come to life. And this is what I wanted to say. So they're scrounging and using this tool and that tool and this tool and this script and this audio and this image and trying to mash it all together and make a Frankenstein of love," said Stacey.

And deciding what the real Chris would say.

What they're saying:

"I have my own thoughts and feelings about how much time I want the sentence to be. If I forgave the shooter or not. I have very definitive opinions about that," said Stacey. "But it was important not to make Chris say what I was feeling and to detach and let him speak because he said things that would never come out of my mouth, but I know would come out his."

Chris Pelkey AI: "In another life, we probably could've been friends. I believe in forgiveness and in God who forgives. I always have and I still do."

That message, one that moved Judge Todd Lang.

"I love that AI. Thank you for that. I felt like that was genuine; that his obvious forgiveness of Mr. Horcasitas reflects the character I heard about today."

Also moved was Chris' big brother John, who, along with the rest of the family, Stacey chose not to tell about the AI video to get their genuine reaction.

"There was something about seeing Chris and the man that I knew and the belief that I thought in my head that Chris would have forgiven this guy," said John. "To see his face and to hear his voice say it. Just waves of healing washed over my soul. Because that was the man that I knew."

He continued, "My sister did an exceptional job of detaching herself from her own opinions, her own desires, her own feelings on the matter, and put herself in Chris's shoes, what would Chris say if he were here? It was the beginning of empathy."

But Stacey says the process became easy once she focused on Chris.

"He was the best one of us. What he believes was clear. What he believes was pure. And what he loved was for everyone. And that's the reason why this worked, is because his blanket of love."

Chris Pelkey AI: "Well, I'm gonna go fishing now. Love you all. See you on the other side."

Horcasitas got nearly 13 years in prison.

Dig deeper:

Mel McDonald served in the Maricopa County Superior Court for years. He says it's when, and how, this tech was used that he finds to be highly effective and compelling.

"It had a huge impact on me to see that the voice that wasn't in the courtroom was now in the courtroom," McDonald said.

He spent years working on homicide cases in Maricopa County, and says one thing was always missing.

"The person you didn't hear from or didn't appreciate was the decedent," he said. "I can see where the judge was touched by that. I tell you, had I been sitting in his shoes and wearing the robe, I would've been similarly impressed," McDonald said.

He says the specific use of this technology, during sentencing proceedings, was crucial to its success.

"There are going to be critics, but they picked the right forum to do it. In a trial with a jury you couldn't do it, but with sentencing, everything is open, hearsay is admissible, both sides can get up and express what they want to do," McDonald said.

McDonald believes Pelkey's words made all the difference.

"The power of it was that the judge had to see the gentleness, the kindness, the feeling of sincerity and having his sister say, 'Well we don't agree with it, this is what he would've wanted the court to know'," he said.

McDonald says he sees the use of artificial intelligence like this being upheld in sentencings. He said defenses will need to be ready to rebuttal, but only if they can point out inaccuracies.

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