Jason Bush, Wenatchee White Supremacist, Offering No Defense in Arizona Homicides
Who would say this about Jason "Gunny" Bush, the Wenatchee white supremacist now on trial in Arizona in the Shawna Forde-led Minutemen murders: "...his character is evil, demented and unconscionable...He will be found guilty of the senseless and demented murder of a 9-year-old girl and her father....add to these grotesque acts of evil two more murders from 14 years ago..." and there's such "overwhelming evidence" there's no sense in defending him? Were those the words of the prosecutor, family and friends of the victims - the judge maybe? No. Bush's defense attorneys.
They told a Tucson judge yesterday they will present no defense in his case and save their arguments, and credibility, to persuade the jury to spare Bush from the death penalty. He is the accused shooter in the 2009 murders for which co-defendant Forde was convicted last month. The onetime Seattle prostitute and Everett city council candidate was given the death penalty.
Bush is suspected of four homicides in 12 years. Beside the two Arizona murders, he's thought to have killed Hector Manuel Lopez Partida, 29, a homeless Wenatchee man stabbed seven times while sleeping in 1997. The onetime Aryan Nations soldier is thought to have also killed Jonathan Bumstead, 18, of East Wenatchee, who was shot in the back and head that same year. An informant said Bush confessed he killed Bumstead "because he was a traitor to the race." Bumstead was the only white victim among the four.
Jury selection in the Arizona case started yesterday. But it appears jurors will have an easy decision to make, according to the Arizona Daily Star.
Defense attorney Richard Parrish said in a motion filed Tuesday that neither he nor co-counsel Chris Kimminau will contest Bush's guilt because they "would entirely lose their credibility before the jury," which they would then have to persuade not to impose the death penalty.
Bush, Forde and her sometimes-lover Albert Gaxiola were indicted in 2009 for the slayings of Raul Junior Flores, 29, and Brisenia Flores, 9. Flores' wife, Gina Gonzalez, was wounded but survived.
During Forde's trial, Gonzalez said a gunman with black face paint shot Flores and herself. She pretended to be dead while the gunman, Bush, told her daughter he wouldn't harm her. But he reloaded his gun and shot the girl twice in the face, point-blank.
Gaxiola, the third defendant, has not yet gone to trial.
http://blogs.seattleweekly.com/daily..._white_sup.php
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