Shawna Forde Arizona Murder Case Opens Amid Jared Loughner's Lingering Gunsmoke
Opening statements are set today in what could be a lengthy Arizona trial to determine the fate of ex-Seattle prostitute Shawna Forde and, for that matter, Tucson. The national media is now covering the case, but likely wouldn't have if Jared Loughner had taken his pills. The Daily Beast, for one, calls its Forde story today "Arizona's Other Shooting Horror." It's not that Tucson is some idyllic desert crossroads - the sprawling city of a half-million had more than 50 homicides last year, 74 in 2008. (Seattle had 19 last year). But Loughner's mad-man slaughter was an aberration, and Forde's alleged murders took place down by the Mexican border.
No matter. While Tucson Mayor Robert Walkup tries to tamp down his city's notoriety with his new "Civility Accord" - asking folks to be respectful and "choose words accordingly" - reporters will be telling the nation about this other "Tucson" horror, with a similar flavor and some of the same players.
Minuteman leader Forde, a onetime Everett city council candidate, and Jason Bush, also wanted for two murders in Wenatchee, are facing the death penalty with a third member of her rebel border-watch band. They are charged with the first-degree murders of a Mexican man, Raul Flores, and his daughter Brisina, and the attempted murder of the man's wife May 30 in Arivica, Arizona. Forde is accused of masterminding the slayings to finance her border-watch group and grow it into a Blackwater-like organization, running mercenary missions south of the border.
Like Loughner, they allegedly had no reluctance to mow down their victims - both Loughner and Bush are each accused of killing 9-year-old girls. Pima Count Sheriff Clarence Dupnik talked himself into the spotlight in both cases, as well.
Dupnik, who gained worldwide fame after the Tucson shootings for condemning strident right-wing "rhetoric," didn't mince words in the wake of the Flores murders either. He described Forde as "at best, a psychopath" and called the murder of Brisenia "one of the most despicable acts that I have heard of."
Dupnik has since fallen silent on both cases. Still, attorneys for Forde and Loughner say all the publicity in Tucson has made fair trials impossible for their clients. Loughner's case apparently will be heard in California, as a result. But Forde must take the stand in Tucson where Loughner's gunsmoke lingers. It sounds ready made for both a conviction and appeal.
http://blogs.seattleweekly.com/daily..._murder_ca.php
Bookmarks