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Thread: Jason Eugene Bush - Arizona Death Row

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    Jason Eugene Bush - Arizona Death Row

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    Brisenia Flores, 9




    Jurors fill out questionnaire for Jason Bush trial

    A total of 225 prospective jurors were summoned today to Pima County Superior Court to fill out a questionnaire in State of Arizona vs. Jason Eugene Bush. Trial for Bush is scheduled to resume next Tuesday with jury selection for those jurors who are not dismissed from service as a result of their questionnaire answers.

    Bush, 36, is charged with two counts of first-degree felony murder in the deaths of Raul “Junior” Flores and his daughter, Brisenia, 9, as well as one count of the attempted first-degree murder of Gina Marie Gonzalez; one count of burglary in the first-degree; one count of aggravated assault, serious physical injury; one count of aggravated assault, deadly weapon/dangerous instrument; one count of armed robbery; and one count of aggravated armed robbery.

    Co-defendant Shawna Forde was recently convicted of all of these charges and was sentenced to death by a superior court jury. Bush’s attorney’s filed a motion on Monday asking for a continuance or a change of venue for the trial due to the publicity surrounding the Forde trial. The motion also asked for individual voir dire or questioning of jurors on an individual basis, something that was not allowed when the jury was selected in the Forde case.

    The questionnaire filled out by jurors summarized the charges faced by Bush at trial and attempts to explain that the trial may have as many as three phases, the first being the guilty-not guilty phase that would be tried just like any other case. The second phase, if Bush is found guilty, would be the aggravation phase during which the jury has to agree that aggravation circumstances are present that makes Bush eligible to face the death penalty. The third phase, should Bush be found to be eligible for the death penalty, would feature evidence the defense hopes would persuade the jury to grant leniency or a sentence of life in prison as opposed to death by lethal injection.

    The questionnaire informed the prospective jurors that the trial is anticipated to last through April 8 if all three phases are needed.

    There are questions regarding the amount of news coverage jurors may have been exposed to as well as the sources of that news coverage. It also asks about conversations prospective jurors may have had with family, friends and co-workers about the case.

    The questionnaire also seeks opinions regarding political views, immigration and the death penalty.

    The questionnaires will be reviewed between now and Friday afternoon when attorneys will meet with the judge to discuss jurors who may be dismissed based upon the answers they provide on the questionnaires.

    http://strega5742.blogspot.com/2011/...for-jason.html

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    Trial for second man in border killings

    TUCSON, Ariz. - Jury selection is set to resume Tuesday in the second of three death penalty trials in connection with the May 30, 2009, home invasion in Arivaca (ayr-uh-VAH'-kuh) that left two people dead, including a young girl.

    Pima County Superior Court summoned prospective jurors to court last week to fill out questionnaires in the trial of Washington state native Jason Eugene "Gunny" Bush.

    Attorneys agreed to dismiss 113 jurors, leaving 112 prospective jurors who will begin attorney questioning Tuesday.

    http://www.gvnews.com

    The 36-year-old Bush is charged with two counts of first-degree felony murder in the deaths of Raul Flores and his daughter, 9-year-old Brisenia, as well as one count of the attempted first-degree murder of Gina Marie Gonzalez.

    Last month a jury sentenced 43-year-old Shawna Forde to death in the 2009 murder of the girl and her father.

    http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2011...#ixzz1Gaf7UpOk

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    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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    At the Courthouse: Bush attorney reacts to reacts

    One of Jason Bush's defense attorneys, Richard Parrish, has prepared a letter responding to those who are questioning his and Chris Kimminau's strategy in the case.

    It starts out:

    I hear murmurs around the courthouse that some other lawyers are rolling their eyes at the tactics that I and my co-counsel are using in this case, namely, that we are conceding that Jason did in fact kill two people in a home invasion in Arivaca. Lawyers are always experts on other lawyers' cases! Ours is an unconventional approach to a death penalty case, but there are very well thought out and closely examined reasons for it.

    Parrish, who began his career in 1972, then goes on to lay out the evidence against Bush and to reiterate their belief they would lose credibility with the jurors if they tried to prove his innocence.

    In Parrish's words:

    "They would think, 'These slimy lawyers first try to convince us that this obviously guilty guy is innocent, now they try to tell us to spare his life because he had a bad life. Screw 'em all.' We do not wish this to happen. Mr. Bush does not want this to happen."


    Parrish handed me and another member of the media the letter right before Kellie Johnson gave her opening statement for the state this morning.

    http://azstarnet.com/news/blogs/cour...cc4c002e0.html

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    Second border-activist trial begins in Tucson

    The second of three death-penalty trials has begun in Tucson in a home invasion that left a young girl and her father dead.

    Attorneys for Washington state native Jason Eugene Bush didn't give an opening argument Friday in Pima County Superior Court. They say they're reserving it until after prosecutors rest their case.

    The 36-year-old Bush is charged with two counts of first-degree felony murder in the May 2009 deaths of Raul Flores and his 9-year-old daughter in Arivaca (ayr-uh-VAH'-kuh), south of Tucson.

    Bush and co-defendants Shawna Forde and Albert Gaxiola were indicted in the killings in June 2009.

    Prosecutors alleged the three dressed as law enforcement officers and forced their way into the victims' home.

    Forde was sentenced to death last month. Gaxiola goes on trial June 1.

    http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/htm...visttrial.html

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    2nd Arivaca trial likely to be quick

    Trial started Friday for the alleged shooter in the May 30, 2009, home invasion in Arivaca that left a father and daughter dead and a mother injured, and it appears it will be a short one.

    The first day of wrenching testimony sounded much like that from the trial of Shawna Forde, who was given the death sentence in the shooting deaths of Raul “Junior” Flores and his daughter, Brisenia, 9.

    Jason Eugene Bush, 36, is the second of three people to face trial in the murders. Albert Gaxiola of Arivaca goes on trial after Bush’s concludes.

    In a motion filed with the court last week, defense counsel Richard Parrish wrote that he and co-counsel Chris Kimminau do not plan to actively defend Bush during the first phase of the potentially three-phase trial, calling the evidence against him “overwhelming.”

    But they are arguing that the jury should not hear evidence that Bush is wanted in connection with a pair of 1997 murders in the state of Washington during the penalty phase of the trial if he is found guilty.

    At this point, the defense isn’t trying to save Bush from a conviction, they’re trying to save him from death.

    Opening statements

    Deputy County Attorney Kellie Johnson provided the jury of five men and 11 women with an outline of the evidence they could expect to her during her opening statement.

    The first witness for the prosecution was 9-1-1 operator Tanya Remsburg who took the called from Gina Gonzalez, wife of Raul and mother of Brisenia, the night of the shootings. Then the prosecution played the recording of the 9-1-1 call with the sound of several shots being fired by Gonzalez when a tall male gunman re-entered the house. The defense asked no questions of the witness.

    Then the prosecution called Gonzalez to the stand and she recounted watching her husband and daughter being shot to death in their living room after a group of people came to the door and demanded entry.

    Gonzalez said her husband answered the door and was told that their neighbors had called to complain that they were harboring fugitives.

    “They tell him to open the door and that the house is surrounded and they need to take a look,” she testified.

    After Flores and Gonzalez were shot, the gunman turned his attention to Brisenia, who woke up during the shootings.

    “She asked, ‘Why did you shoot my dad?’ and he says, ‘Everything is going to be OK. Nobody’s going to hurt you,’” Gonzalez told the jury.

    The tall male pointed in the direction of Gonzalez on the floor and asked Brisenia if she was her sister.

    “I could see Brisenia peeking down from the couch at me and she says, ‘No, that’s not my sister. That’s my mother,’” Gonzalez recalled.

    At that point, the man, who had a blackened face, proceeded to reload his weapon as Brisenia watched. “She said, ‘Please don’t shoot me,’” Gonzalez testified. “He shoots her twice.”

    A look ahead


    A first-degree murder trial involving the possibility of the death penalty is done in three phases. The first is the guilt-innocence phase, which Bush’s defense team has all but given up on; the next is the aggravation phase to determine eligibility for the death penalty; the last is the penalty phase, where it’s decided whether the death penalty will be given.

    It appears the defense’s strategy to avoid the death penalty will be to focus on Bush’s childhood.

    “His father and mother basically disowned him, terminated their parenting of him at the age of 11,” Parrish told the judge during a hearing on the motion to exclude testimony on the Washington murders. “His father committed him to a mental institution.”

    Parrish also told Pima County Superior Court Judge John Leonardo they may talk about law enforcement contacts his client has had over the years.

    “We have records of a long series of contacts with law enforcement,” he said. “There are 1,562 pages of documentation about this.”

    Parrish also revealed that Bush had invented a fictional life for himself.

    “There is an entire carton of framed certificates, testimonials from the department of defense, the president of the United States, special forces, photographs of Mr. Bush in a Marine uniform with weapons, jumping out of an airplane an doing various things,” he said. “It is all in the imagination of Mr. Bush. He was never in the service. He created an identity which he backed up with some astonishingly real looking certificates.”

    Parrish said the evidence regarding the Washington incidents would be prejudicial.

    “I have never seen anything more calculated to prejudice this individual. The guilt phase is going to end very rapidly, I believe,” he said.

    Leonardo declined to make a ruling on the motion. Testimony in the case resumes Tuesday.

    http://www.gvnews.com/news/article_3...cc4c002e0.html

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    Arivaca man says Bush admitted to murders

    An Arivaca man testified Tuesday that Jason Bush told him he shot and killed a man, his 9-year-old daughter and the man’s wife during a home invasion in 2009.

    Bush, 36, is on trial in the deaths of Raul “Junior” Flores and his daughter Brisenia in the May 30, 2009, murders in Arivaca.

    Oin Oakstar, who has admitted to planning the home invasion but who did not take part, said he brought painkillers to a home the day after the killings where he found Bush with a gunshot wound.

    “He told me he had shot Junior, his daughter and his wife,” Oakstar testified.

    Gina Gonzalez, Flores’ wife, returned fire during the attack and hit one of the intruders.

    Oakstar, a known drug dealer in Arivaca, repeated much of his testimony from the earlier trial of Shawna Forde, one of three defendants in the murders. He testified about the so-called Arivaca rules, where the killing of a rival drug dealer was “business,” but that family members were off-limits.

    “Women and children are not part of it,” Oakstar testified. “There’s no reason to bring them into it.”

    Oakstar testified that he and Albert Gaxiola, who will be the final defendant to go on trial, considered Flores a rival in the drug business and they had started talking about eliminating him as competition in late 2008 and early 2009.

    Oakstar had testified during the Forde trial that there was no discussion of harming the remainder of the Flores family.

    Forde was convicted and sentenced to death last month.

    Deputy County Attorney Rick Unklesbay told the court he anticipated the state would rest its case today. Defense counsel Chris Kimminau confirmed that the defense has no intention of presenting witnesses during this phase of the trial. Bush’s defense team earlier said they would not spend a lot of time on the guilt-innocence phase of the trial because he had confessed to authorities. Instead, they would focus on sparing their client the death penalty.

    Closing arguments are expected to take place Thursday. If Bush is found guilty, the aggravation phase that would determine whether he is eligible for the death penalty would take place Friday. If Bush were found to be eligible for death, the penalty phase would start Tuesday or Wednesday next week.

    Also Tuesday, a member of the jury was removed after an anonymous caller said she was talking about the case at work.

    Check out Dave Ricker’s blog for more information on the trial: http://strega5742.blogspot.com

    http://www.kswt.com/Global/story.asp?S=14307471

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    UPDATE:

    At the Courthouse: Jury about to start deliberations in Bush case

    http://azstarnet.com/news/blogs/cour...cc4c03286.html

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    Jury finds Bush guilty of all charges in Arivaca murder case

    A Pima County Superior Court jury of four men and eight women has found Jason Eugene Bush guilty on two counts of first-degree murder in the May 30, 2009 deaths of Raul "Junior" Flores and his daughter, Brisenia, 9, at their home in Arivaca.

    Bush, 36, was also found guilty of the attempted first-degree murder of Gina Marie Gonzalez; as well as of one count of burglary in the first-degree; one count of aggravated assault, serious physical injury; one count of aggravated assault, deadly weapon/dangerous instrument; one count of armed robbery; and one count of aggravated armed robbery.

    Co-defendant Shawna Forde was recently convicted of all of these charges and was sentenced to death by a superior court jury.

    The jury deliberated for two-and-a-half hours on Thursday without reaching a verdict and for a little over an hour on Friday before returning the guilty verdicts on the charges listed above. Most observers predicted the jury would deliberate for a short period of time before returning their guilty verdicts. The length of the deliberations caught many off guard since the defense had conceded his guilt and asked virtually no questions of witnesses.

    Bush displayed no emotion, initially, staring straight ahead. Later, he sat at the defense table with his eyes closed.

    The aggravation phase of the trial will begin at 1 p.m. today. If the jury finds the aggravators are proven then Bush will be eligible for the death penalty.

    http://www.gvnews.com/news/article_5...cc4c002e0.html

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    Jury deciding on life or death for Jason Bush

    TUCSON - News 4 is in Judge John Leonardo's courtroom, where Jason Bush's murder trial is in phase three - the penalty phase.

    Gina Gonzales is on the stand, giving a victim impact statement. She is telling the jury how Jason Bush shot her, and shot and killed her husband and her daughter.

    Jason Eugene Bush, 36, was convicted in Tucson of two counts of first-degree murder in the May 30, 2009, slaying of Raul Flores and his 9-year-old daughter, Brisenia.

    The Pima County Superior Court jury is now deciding if Bush gets the death penalty, or a life sentence in prison.

    His co-defendant, Shawna Forde, was recently convicted in the deaths of Flores and his daughter and was sentenced to death

    http://www.kvoa.com/news/jury-decidi...or-jason-bush/

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