Anti-immigrant vigilante sentenced to death for Arizona murder

Anti-immigrant vigilante sentenced to death for Arizona murder

2011-02-23 04:40:37 GMT+7 (ICT)

TUCSON (BNO NEWS) -- An Arizona jury on Tuesday sentenced an anti-immigrant vigilante to death for the killings of a 9-year-old girl and her father.

Shawna Forde, 43, was convicted last week of first-degree murder in the May 2009 deaths of 29-year-old Raúl Junior Flores and nine-year-old Brisenia Flores, and of attempted first-degree murder in the shooting of Gina González, Flores' wife and Brisenia's mother. Forde, leader of the anti-immigration group Minutemen American Defense, is now the third woman on Arizona's death row.

Jurors were told Forde needed money for her border protection group and decided to rob drug smugglers near the border, the Arizona Daily Star reported.

González testified that a man and a woman claiming to be law enforcement officers looking for fugitives forced their way into her home and then shot at them.The man opened fire on the couple when Junior Flores questioned their story and their daughter was shot at point-blank range while pleading for her life, González told jurors.

During the trial, prosecutors played a taped conversation between Forde and an FBI informant that took place days after the slaying. She tells the informant, "I'm the one person they know is willing to take it to the next level and that scares a lot of people," as cited by the newspaper.

Defense attorney Jill Thorpe asked jurors to spare Ford's life, arguing that she suffered repeated acts of sexual and physical abuse and abandonment as a child.

Thorpe urged the jury to compare Forde's moral culpability with that of the gunman, whom authorities have identified as Jason Bush, 36. Meanwhile, Deputy Pima County Attorney Rick Unklesbay also urged the jury to think about moral culpability, noting Forde didn't stop Bush from shooting any of the victims.

Bush is scheduled to go to trial March 15, while Albert Robert Gaxiola, who is accused of providing information about the area, is scheduled for June 1. They, too, face the death penalty, according to the Arizona Daily Star.

The child and her father were American-born U.S. citizens with a Latino background.

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