For two long years, Stacey Wales kept a list, scribbled thoughts, raw emotions, unfinished sentences, all meant for the man who took her brother’s life in a senseless road rage incident in Chandler, Arizona.

But when the day finally came for her to speak at the sentencing hearing, she couldn’t find the words.

"I couldn't help but hear his voice in my head," Wales told NPR. "I could almost hear exactly what he would say."

And so, she did something no one had done before in a U.S. courtroom: she brought her late brother, Christopher Pelkey, back to life, through artificial intelligence.

"He Doesn't Get a Say. We Can't Let That Happen."

Chris Pelkey, a veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, was shot and killed at a red light in 2021. The man responsible, Gabriel Paul Horcasitas, was being retried in 2025 after procedural issues voided the first trial. Wales had waited through years of court silence, withholding her tears and reactions so as not to sway the jury. But at sentencing, it was finally her turn to speak.

And yet, she didn’t want to say “I forgive you” if she didn’t mean it.

“I’m not there yet,” she admitted. But she could feel Chris, his presence, his faith, his values. “He would have forgiven him,” she said.

So, she wrote a statement, not in her voice, but in his.

Rebuilding a Voice from Fragments

Her husband, Tim, had AI experience. Together with business partner Scott Yentzer, they worked rapidly to create something both real and respectful. But it wasn’t easy. They didn’t have a high-quality recording of Chris’s voice or a photo of him looking straight at the camera.

Using multiple tools and a short video clip from Chris’s funeral, they digitally recreated his face, trimmed his beard, and even removed sunglasses that interfered with the tech. Wales herself oversaw every detail, especially the laugh, Chris’s signature sound.

"Recreating that was hard," she said, noting that most recordings were cluttered with background noise.

The process made her reflect on mortality. One night, she stepped into her closet and recorded nine minutes of herself, talking, laughing, just being, so that if anything ever happened to her, her family would have that part of her preserved.

A Courtroom First, and a Message That Broke the Silence

On the day of sentencing, ten people spoke on behalf of Pelkey. Chris’s AI-rendered avatar went last.

“Hello. Just to be clear for everyone seeing this, I’m a version of Chris Pelkey recreated through AI using my picture and my voice profile,” the video began.

He addressed the shooter directly: “It’s a shame we met that day under those circumstances. In another life, we might have been friends. I believe in forgiveness, and in a God who forgives. I always have, and I still do.”

He ended with a smile, “Well, I’m gonna go fishing now. Love you all. See you on the other side.”

No one objected, not the defense, not the judge. In fact, Judge Todd Lang responded with quiet awe: “I loved that AI. Thank you for that.”

Forgiveness and Grief in a Digital Age

Horcasitas received a 10.5-year sentence for manslaughter. But the real closure, for the Wales family, came through that video. Stacey’s teenage son, who had never gotten to say goodbye, got to hear his uncle’s voice one last time. For Stacey, it gave her the courage to look at photos of Chris again, to hear him laugh, to remember the man, not the crime.

The AI video didn’t just serve justice, it offered healing. It gave voice to the voiceless. And perhaps most remarkably, it showed us that even in the age of machines, love, grief, and forgiveness remain deeply, profoundly human.