Detectives look at divorce fight as possible motive in Imperial Valley farmer wife’s killing

Authorities on Monday released more details in their homicide investigation involving a powerful Imperial Valley farmer accused of killing his estranged wife in Arizona last month.

Since Kerri Ann Abatti was discovered by her nephew fatally shot inside her home Nov. 20, a joint task force of local, multistate and federal law enforcement agencies have been working around the clock to find the gunman, said Navajo County Sheriff David Clouse at a press conference Monday in Arizona.

Imperial County Sheriff’s Office booking mugshot of Michael Abatti on Tuesday.

(Imperial County Sheriff’s Office)

Court documents showed that Abatti, 59, had been embroiled in a bitter divorce with her husband, powerful farmer Mike Abatti, 63, leading up to her killing, with the amount of financial support she was owed at the heart of the disagreement.

After she was shot, investigators from the Navajo County Sheriff’s Office and Pinetop Police Department secured the scene, acquired a search warrant and canvassed the neighborhood, Clouse said.

“We were looking for all eyewitnesses, anybody that was home at the time,” he said. They gathered evidence from home surveillance technology, such as doorbell cameras, “trying to attain as much information” as they could, and interviewed her friends and family — including her three adult children — so they could build a timeline of her activities in the days before her death.

According to court documents, Kerri Abatti moved to the 7,000-square-foot property in her hometown in the eastern White Mountains in 2023 after leaving her husband and initiating divorce proceedings.

As part of their homicide investigation, detectives “looked for anything that was out of the norm” around the time of Abatti’s killing, Clouse said. They soon learned about the contentious divorce.

On Nov. 23, Clouse said the investigation moved to the Imperial Valley, where they executed search warrants on three different locations, including the Abattis’ home in El Centro and Michael Abatti’s business properties.

In the Imperial Valley, the Abatti name holds weight. Mike Abatti served as a board member of the Imperial Irrigation District from 2006-10 and once sued the district in a dispute over water rights. He owns a large farming operation that grows sugar beets, alfalfa and melons and is one of the largest operators in the area.

The sign in front of Mike Abatti’s farm shop, bearing the name of his late father, in El Centro on Dec. 10.

(Hayne Palmour IV/For The Times)

Divorce filings show that Kerri Abatti accused her husband of stonewalling her attempts to learn the full picture of their income and real estate holdings while he made changes to their finances without consulting her or her attorney. Meanwhile, she contended, she was struggling to stay afloat on the several thousand dollars in monthly spousal support that the court temporarily awarded her as the proceedings stretched on for more than two years.

As part of their investigation, detectives interviewed Abatti’s friends, family and business associates in Arizona and Southern California.

Once enough information was gathered, the team cross-referenced all of their intelligence, looking for inconsistencies and flags, and provided their findings to the Navajo County district attorney’s office, Clouse said.

On Tuesday, that information was presented to a grand jury in Navajo County, and an arrest warrant was issued for Michael Abatti.

The Imperial County Sheriff’s Office arrested Abatti in El Centro that day. He is awaiting extradition to Arizona.

“We have received orders for a pickup, he has been placed in our transport queue… and the date and time will be released once he’s back in Navajo County,” said Clouse. “We will notify everybody… once he is secured back in Navajo County jail.”