Michael Abatti extradited to Arizona, pleads not guilty to estranged wife's murder
Michael Abatti (Navajo County Sheriff's Office)
NAVAJO COUNTY, Ariz. - A California farming mogul accused of murdering his estranged wife in Pinetop pleaded not guilty on Wednesday, a day after he was extradited to Arizona.
The backstory:
Kerri Ann Abatti, 59, was found shot inside her Pinetop home by a family member on the night of Nov. 20. She died while being transported to a hospital.
On Dec 23, Kerri Ann Abatti's husband, Michael, was arrested in Imperial County, California. He was indicted by a grand jury last week for first-degree murder.
Michael Abatti (Imperial County Sheriffs Office)
During a news conference on Dec. 29, Navajo County authorities said its investigators followed leads to El Centro, California, where they spoke with family and friends of the Abattis. They also executed search warrants at Michael Abatti's home and his properties.
"When talking to friends, family, and everybody in the area and not only in Arizona and California, that’s one of the topics that came up in almost all interviews is the separation of the family and how things were being drawn out," said Navajo County Sheriff David Clouse.
Dig deeper:
Court documents show Michael and Kerri Ann were going through divorce proceedings, and they were sparring over finances, with Kerri telling a court that the couple lived an upper-class lifestyle during more than three decades of marriage. They owned a large home in California, a vacation home in Pinetop and ranch land in Wyoming and vacationed in Switzerland, Italy and Hawaii while sending their children to private school, she said.
After the split, Kerri was granted $5,000 a month in temporary spousal support, but last year asked for an increase to $30,000, saying she couldn’t maintain her standard of living as she quit her job as a bookkeeper and office manager for the family farm in 1999 to stay home with the couple’s three children. Kerri, who previously held a real estate license in Arizona, also asked for an additional $100,000 in attorney’s fees, court filings show.
Investigators reveal new details on California man accused of killing his estranged wife in Pinetop
Officials with the Navajo County Sheriff's Office gave new details surrounding an investigation into a murder in Pinetop that led to the arrest of a farmer in California.
"I am barely scraping by each month, am handling all of the manual labor on our large property in Arizona and continuing its upkeep," she wrote in court filings earlier this year, adding she was living near her elderly parents.
In a legal filing, Michael Abatti said he couldn't afford the increase due to two bad farming years that took a toll on his monthly income, saying that European shifts in crop-buying to support war-plagued Ukrainian farmers and rising shipping costs were to blame along with an unusually cold and wet winter.
"The income available at this time does not warrant any increase in the amount to which the parties stipulated, let alone an increase to $30,000 per month," Lee Hejmanowski, Abatti’s family law attorney, wrote in court papers.
During their Dec. 29 news conference, Navajo County authorities did not disclose a motive for the murder.
What's next:
Abatti, 63, is being held on a $5.5 million bond. A pre-trial conference and release hearing is scheduled for March 17, 2026, in Navajo County.
The Source: Information for this story was gathered from news releases from the Navajo County Sheriff's Office and a previous FOX 10 report on Dec. 29, 2025.