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Thread: Shawna Forde - Arizona Death Row

  1. #21
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Aggravation phase underway in Forde trial

    Jurors will be hearing from Gina Gonzalez again today in the trial of Shawna Forde.

    This time Gonzalez will tell the jury about the emotional impact the murders of her husband and 9-yeard-old daughter have had on her. She and her eldest daughter are testifying as part of the state's attempts to obtain the death penalty for Forde.

    Gonzalez walked into court this morning carrying several pictures of her family taken before home invaders barged their way into her house on May 30, 2009, and changed her life forever.

    Right now, prosecutor Rick Unklesbay is giving his opening statement in the aggravation phase.

    Sometime this afternoon, defense attorneys Jill Thorpe and Eric Larsen will begin to put on their mitigation evidence.

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

  2. #22
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    Jury: Convicted activist eligible for death penalty

    UCSON, Ariz. (AP) -- An Arizona jury says the leader of an anti-illegal-immigrant group convicted in a deadly 2009 home invasion robbery is eligible for the death penalty.

    Pima County Superior Court jurors reached their decision Tuesday after 45 minutes of deliberations. They now will hear several days of mitigating evidence from defense attorneys on why Shawna Forde's life should be spared.

    The 42-year-old Forde was convicted Monday on two counts of first-degree murder and other charges in the May 2009 home invasion in Arivaca (ayr-uh-VAH'-kuh), a desert community about 10 miles north of Mexico. Killed in the robbery were 29-year-old Raul Flores and his 9-year-old daughter Brisenia.

    Forde is the leader of the Minutemen American Defense, a small border watch group. Prosecutors say she planned the attack to help fund its anti-immigrant operations.

    http://www.columbian.com/news/2011/f...death-penalty/

  3. #23
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    At the Courthouse: Forde closings over

    Defense attorneys Jill Thorpe and Eric Larsen told jurors that the death penalty ought to be reserved for the "worst of the worst" and Shawna Forde doesn't fit that bill.

    Thorpe urged jurors to look at Forde's moral culpability in the deaths of Raul Junior Flores and Brisenia Flores and then compare it with that of alleged gunman Jason Bush and Oin Oakstar, who testified he was fully prepared to snipe Flores, but opted out at the last minute.

    Is Forde as culpable as you if you, "hearing the fear in a child's voice as she's begging you not to shoot and you do it anyway?" Thorpe asked.

    Thorpe also conceded Forde's guilt, but said her horrendous childhood brought on a mental illness.

    Because of her mental deficiencies, Forde was "putty" in the hands of Albert Gaxiola, who wanted his drug rival dead, and she fell for all of the lies Bush told her about his military background, Thorpe said.

    Thorpe reminded jurors defense experts said Forde forsee where her path was leading her and left her unable to change course.

    Larsen said Forde was desperately trying to find happiness from external sources, not knowing that people can only find happiness from within. Her quest led her to this point, he said.

    Both attorneys noted that imposing the death penalty will not "fix" anything. Gina Gonzalez will still be without her husband and youngest child.

    Prosecutor Rick Unklesbay pointed out that there are plenty of abuse victims out there who haven't killed people and at some point, most abuse victims decide to not let their past dictate who they are.

    Had it not been for Shawna Forde, none of this would've happened, Unklesbay said.

    He also reminded jurors it was Forde who, after discovering Gonzalez was still alive, told Bush to go back in and "finish her."

    The jury will return from lunch and begin deliberations at 2.

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

  4. #24
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    No decision on whether Forde should get death penalty

    Jurors who must decide whether Shawna Forde should become the third woman on Arizona’s death row went home Friday without reaching a decision. They’ll resume deliberations on Tuesday.

    Forde, 43, was convicted Monday of first-degree murder in the May 30, 2009, deaths of Arivaca residents Raul Junior Flores, 29, and Brisenia Flores, 9, and of attempted first-degree murder in the shooting of Gina Gonzalez, Flores’ wife and Brisenia’s mother.

    Prosecutors presented evidence the Floreses were shot by Jason Bush, 36, after he and Forde forced their way into the home, claiming to be law-enforcement officers looking for fugitives.

    The prosecutors said Forded wanted to rob Flores to fund her border protection group, Minutemen American Defense.

    Gonzalez testified that as she lay feigning death, she heard Brisenia plead for her life and the gunman shoot her twice at point-blank range.

    http://azstarnet.com/news/local/crim...cc4c03286.html

  5. #25
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    At the Courthouse: Pima County jurors give mixed sentences

    Jurors in the Shawna Forde case will be back tomorrow at 9:30 a.m. to resume their deliberations on her sentence.

    Read Forde must wait for wait for life-or-death decision if you missed Saturday's story on the closing arguments.

    If the jury doesn't give her the death penalty for the murders of Raul Junior Flores and Brisenia Flores, Judge John Leonardo will have to decide her sentence on the murder charges, plus all of the other charges she was convicted of.

    Forde is facing natural life for both victims or life with the possibility of release after 25 years for Junior Flores' death and life without the possibility of release after 35 years for Brisenia's death. (It's higher because of Brisenia's age.)

    Here are results in other relatively recent Pima County death penalty cases:

    * April 2008 — Jesus Rafael Muro-Monge waives his right to have a jury decide whether he ought to live or die. Judge John Davis sentences him to life without the possibility of parole, plus an extra 25.5 years.

    * March 2009 — Jury gives Christopher Payne two death sentences after deliberating five hours over two days. Judge Richard Fields sentences him to an extra 51 years on other charges, but runs them concurrently for fear of appellate issues.

    * September 2009 — Jury sentences Scott Nordstrom to death after deliberating three hours.

    * November 2009 — Jury sentences James Wallace to death after deliberating eight hours over two days.

    * June 2010 — Jury deliberates four hours over two days and is unable to reach a decision in the Marco Chavez case. Judge Richard Nichols sentences Chavez to life without the possibility of release, plus a consecutive 88 years.

    * June 2010 — A jury is unable to reach a verdict on the guilt of Marco Glaser, so prosecutors won't be seeking his death when they try him again next month.

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

  6. #26
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    Tucson jury sentences border activist to death

    TUCSON, Ariz. – An Arizona jury has sentenced a border activist to death in the 2009 murder of a young girl and her father.

    The Pima County Attorney's Office said Tuesday the Tucson jury returned the death penalty verdict against 43-year-old Shawna Forde. She now becomes the third woman on Arizona's death row.

    Forde was convicted of first-degree murder and other charges in the May 2009 home invasion in Arivaca (ayr-uh-VAH'-kuh), a desert community about 10 miles north of Mexico.

    Twenty-nine-year-old Raul Flores and his 9-year-old daughter, Brisenia, were killed in the robbery.

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110222/..._death_penalty

  7. #27
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    Edited:

    Half brother: Forde deserves to die for crime

    A Redding man says his half sister, the leader of anti-illegal immigrant militia group that once recruited in the north state, deserves to die for murdering a 9-year-old Arizona girl and her father.

    "I'm so angry over the fact of what they did," 49-year-old Merrill Metzger said Wednesday. "I don't care who it is. If I killed a 9-year-old girl, I'd deserve to die, too."

    Metzger said he can't comprehend how Shawna Forde, 43, of Everett, Wash., could murder Brisenia Flores and her father, Raul Flores.

    Forde was the leader of the Minutemen American Defense border watch group.

    Forde contacted the Record Searchlight about her border-watch plans after reading a November 2006 series by the newspaper chronicling illicit marijuana plantations.

    In an April 2007 visit to Redding, she said she had as many as 50 people in the north state interested in joining her militia but declined to say who they were.

    Metzger called the group of Forde's former supporters who continue to support her "a bunch of whack-nuts."

    "She sat in my living room and told me she was going to rob drug cartels," he said.

    Metzger says he resigned himself to her being sentenced to death after he learned of the murder.

    But Metzger said Forde's mother, Rena Caudle of Redding, didn't take the news of her daughter's death sentence as well.

    "My mom is definitely heartbroken over it," Metzger said. "When she found out, she started shaking and she broke down and cried."

    Metzger said he's also still upset that Forde and her alleged accomplices stole from him and some family friends soon after they committed the murders.

    Shasta County sheriff's detectives say Forde, Bush and Gaxiola are suspects in a Shasta Lake home-invasion robbery that happened a few days after the murders. Metzger's home was robbed around the same time.

    On June 8, 2009, two men who claimed to be U.S. marshals when they barged into Pete and Lynette Myers' home in Shasta Lake pointed handguns at them and bound their hands with plastic cable ties, Shasta County sheriff's detectives have said.

    The Myers couple are friends of Forde's mother.

    Investigators suspect the two men may have been Bush and Gaxiola. Metzger said the group had signed into a Cottonwood motel after the thefts using their real names.

    He said detectives found the safe they'd stolen from his house tossed in a creek behind the motel. They'd tried to pry it open, he said.

    Metzger said the sheriff's office continues to hold the safe for evidence, but detectives aren't interested in filing a case because the charges in Arizona are so much more serious.

    Metzger said there are other victims in Forde's murder too, her children and her granddaughter.

    "She'll never get to know her grandmother, except as a murderer on Death Row," he said.

    http://www.redding.com/news/2011/feb...eath-sentence/

  8. #28
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    Tucson judge adds 65 years to border activist on death row

    Death row inmate Shawna Forde was sentenced to an additional 65 years Monday in the May 2009 deaths of a 9-year-old Arivaca girl and the girl's father.

    Forde declined to make a statement prior to Judge John Leonardo's imposition of the sentences in Pima County Superior Court.

    Forde, 43, was convicted in February of two counts of first-degree murder and sentenced to die for orchestrating the deaths of Raul Junior Flores, 29, and Brisenia Flores.

    She was also convicted of the attempted first-degree murder of Flores' wife, Gina Gonzalez, and five burglary, aggravated assault and armed robbery counts. Leonardo imposed 10 or 15 years on each of those counts and ran all but one of them consecutive to each other and consecutive to the death sentences.

    The Floreses died May 30, 2009, after Junior Flores let a couple pretending to be law enforcement officers into his home in Arivaca. Gonzalez testified she and Junior, her husband of 13 years, were shot after he expressed doubts about their identity.

    The gunman assured Brisenia he wasn't going to shoot her, but then shot her twice while she pleaded for her life, Gonzalez testified.

    Jurors were told Forde needed money for her border protection group, Minutemen American Defense, and recruited some men to rob drug smugglers near the border. All the invaders got was a handful of inexpensive jewelry that was later found in Forde's possession, prosecutors said.

    Jason Bush was convicted earlier this month of being the gunman and was also sentenced to death. He will be sentenced on burglary, assault and robbery charges May 13.

    Jury selection for the last person charged in connection with the case, Albert Gaxiola, will begin June 1.

    He, too, is facing the death penalty.

    http://azstarnet.com/news/local/crim...cc4c002e0.html

  9. #29
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    Convicted killer Shawna Forde claims she is a victim of political persecution

    On the Jan. 18 episode of "Deadly Women," the story of Shawna Forde was told. She was a sociopath who murdered because she believed that she was a patriot "defending her country" from illegal immigrants.

    The killer worked as a part-time beautician and had a long history of prostitution and theft in her juvenile years. The one thing that she felt strongly about was the problem of illegal immigration. In an attempt to do something about it, she joins the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps., a group of activists who were passionate about stopping Mexicans from crossing the border illegally.

    However, the group kicked her out because she was "too wacky" for them. Shawna Forde had an idea of patrolling the border herself and would go to great lengths to stop Mexicans from crossing the border.

    She ended up starting her own group, the Minuteman American Defense and began recruiting members she thought would get the job done. She recruits 34-year-old Jason Bush, who has a lengthy military history and was a sniper. She also invites Albert Gaxiola to her newly formed group.

    The group is eager to start ridding the country of illegal immigrants, but they have no money. She comes up with an idea to rob drug dealers because the home invasions would not be reported to the police.

    Raul "Junior" Flores was rumored to be dealing with drug traffickers and the group believed he had money, drugs and guns in his home.

    The amount of money that was rumored to be in the Flores' home is disputed; "Deadly Women" said that the group believed he had up to 3 million dollars stashed at his house, but HyperVocal reported that the amount was $4,000.

    The group ends up going to the home of the target with the ruse that they were border patrol looking for fugitives. Once they gain entry, they shoot Junior several times, then shoot his wife, Gina Gonzales twice and then turn the gun on their 9-year-old daughter, Brisenia at point-blank range.

    Gonzales is the only one who survives and pretended to be dead.

    Albert Gaxiola, Jason Bush and Shawna Forde find no money, drugs or guns. The only thing worth anything from the home of Raul Flores was a few pieces of jewelry.

    One thing the killers did not count on was Gina Gonzales surviving and being able to identify one of the killers. They felt zero remorse and were even planning another home invasion.

    Candice DeLong, a former profiler for the FBI says that Shawna has much hostility and anger towards the world and wanted to direct it at those she felt deserved to be punished. She also stated that the leader of the Minuteman American Defense group was grandiose and full of herself. Delong said that she never expressed one ounce of remorse, has no feelings for anyone else and is completely empty inside. Shawna Forde considered herself to be a "patriot who was defending her country from illegal immigrants." The FBI profiler also told "Deadly Women,"

    "She is a sociopath to the very depths of her soul."

    All three members of the Minuteman American Defense group are convicted on two counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted first-degree murder. Albert Gaxiola is serving a life sentence without parole, Jason Bush was given the death penalty and Shawna Forde is still sitting on death row. According to the Phoenix New Times, the execution date has not yet been determined.

    Shawna has her own website and declares that she is the victim of false arrest and political persecution.

    http://www.examiner.com/article/conv...al-prosecution
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

  10. #30
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    Suit in deadly Arivaca attack dismissed

    A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed against the FBI by a former Arivaca woman who lost her youngest daughter and husband during a May 2009 home invasion.

    Last May, Gina Gonzalez sued the federal government, saying an FBI agent was aware members of a militia group were planning to raid her home, but the agent failed to notify the Pima County Sheriff's Department.

    Had the Sheriff's Department known about the plot, a deputy could have arrested two of the three future perpetrators when he encountered them just a few days before they carried out their plan, the lawsuit alleged.

    On Friday, U.S. District Judge Jennifer Zipps agreed with defense attorneys, who said the agency was exempt from litigation because the agent used his discretion under FBI policy.

    "We're disappointed, and we plan to appeal," said Gonzalez's attorney, Thomas Cotter. He declined to comment further.

    On May 30, 2009, Raul Junior Flores, 29, let Shawna Forde and Jason Bush into his home when they knocked on his door and claimed they were U.S. Border Patrol agents looking for fugitives.

    Within minutes, Bush shot and killed Raul Flores, shot and wounded Gonzalez and then shot their youngest daughter, Brisenia, as the 9-year-old begged for her life.

    As Gonzalez pretended to be dead, Bush, Forde and Albert Gaxiola ransacked the house looking for drugs and money, but left with just a few pieces of jewelry.

    All three were tried separately in Pima County Superior Court in 2011 and convicted. Forde, 45, and Bush, 38, are on Arizona's death row. Gaxiola, 45, is serving a no-parole life term.

    Forde intended to use the proceeds of the home invasion to fund Minutemen American Defense, the militia she formed, prosecutors alleged.

    Colorado bounty hunter, Minuteman and FBI informant Robert Copley testified he met with Forde at an Aurora, Colo., truck stop two weeks before the slayings.

    During that meeting, Forde wanted to know if he and his buddies were interested in robbing a drug cartel "staging area," according to court testimony and Gonzalez's lawsuit.

    Copley met with his FBI handler after the meeting, told him of the plot and gave him a map of the area where the Flores' home was located. The agent gave the map to agents in the Phoenix FBI office, but it was lost.

    Gonzalez's lawsuit maintained the FBI agents were required to tell local law enforcement about the planned crime.

    Gonzalez and her eldest daughter, who was at her grandparents' the night of the murders, have since moved from Arivaca.

    http://azstarnet.com/news/local/crim...cb84198e9.html
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

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