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Nine-year-old Brisenia Flores |
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Shawna Forde being escorted
to prison for murder of nine-year-old Brisenia Flores. |
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Border
Vigilante Found Guilty of First Degree
Murder of Brisenia Flores
ARIVACA, AZ &
SANTA FE, NM
(By
Dean
Schabner and Devin Dwyer, ABC News)
February 15, 2011
―
Shawna Forde, a border vigilante, was
convicted yesterday of two counts of
murder for orchestrating a home invasion
that left a 9-year-old Arizona girl and
her father dead.
Prosecutors said Forde planned the home
invasion to rob Raul "Junior" Flores,
who she thought was a drug dealer, to
fund her border watch group. There were
rumors Flores, 29, had a stash of $4,000
in cash in the house.
Flores and his daughter Bresenia were
both killed in the May 2010 attack at
their Arivaca, Ariz., home. His wife,
Gina Gonzalez, was shot three times, but
survived by playing dead.
In addition to the first-degree murder
charges, Forde, 43, founder of Minutemen
American Defense, was found guilty of
one count of attempted first-degree
murder; 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.
The Pima County Superior Court jury came
back with a verdict after it deliberated
for seven hours over two days.
The sentencing phase of the trial begins
Tuesday. Forde could face the death
penalty.
Forde's lawyer had argued the woman was
not in the house when Flores and his
daughter were murdered, so she should
not be found guilty.
But prosecutors said Forde was with the
two men who broke into the Flores home,
and Gonzalez testified that she was
there.
"She didn't put a gun to Brisenia's head
... but she was the one in charge," Pima
County Deputy County Attorney Rick
Unklesbay said in closing arguments.
"Because of that you must hold her
accountable."
Gonzalez, who played dead in the kitchen
after being shot three times in the leg,
identified one of the three suspects as
Forde.
"She's walking in and she's got a smile
on her face. She looks up ... and walks
back out," Gonzalez told the jury.
The woman testified in chilling detail
about seeing her husband and daughter
killed.
"He's all out of bullets by then because
he used them on me and Junior," she said
of one of the alleged gunmen who had
shot and killed Flores, 29, before
turning the barrel on their crying
daughter, Brisenia. "He stands here and
he loads the gun right in front of her."
"And is this something you can see
happening?" Pima County Deputy Attorney
Kellie Johnson asked.
"I just hear her telling him, 'Please
don't shoot me, please don't shoot me,'"
Gonzalez said.
Then, Brisenia was shot in the head.
Two other suspects ― Jason Bush, a known
white-supremacist, and Albert Gaxiola, a
convicted drug dealer ― are in custody
awaiting trials later this spring. Like
Forde, both men have pleaded not guilty.
In a 911 call recording played in court,
Gonzalez could be heard using her
husband's handgun to fire back at the
men after they had left and returned,
continuing to ransack the house.
"They're coming back in, they're coming
back in," she told dispatcher Tanya
Remsburg. Several rounds of gunshots can
be heard on the recording. "Get the f***
out of here, get the f*** out of here."
Gonzalez said the family had been roused
from their sleep by a trio dressed in
camouflage, claiming to be law
enforcement officers looking for
fugitives.
"They told us somebody had escaped jail
or something, they wanted to come in and
look at my house," she said on the call.
"And they just shot my husband and they
shot my daughter and they shot me. Oh,
my God, ma'am, I can't believe this is
happening. ... I can't believe they
killed my family."
Lying in the kitchen, bleeding from
gunshot wounds to her leg, she described
the suspects as a white male whose face
was painted black, a six-foot-tall
Mexican man and a "shorter fat woman."
In the courtroom Jan. 26, Gonzalez
pointed to Forde and said she looked
like the female suspect. Previously,
however, she had failed to pick Forde
out of a police lineup.
"Essentially, this case is a doughnut, a
lot of circumstantial evidence all
around," Forde's attorney, Eric Larsen,
had said in his opening statement.
"There is a hole, and that hole is
Shawna Forde not being there at that
home on May 30."
But prosecutors said there was evidence
from Gonzalez and other witnesses that
linked her to the crime.
They presented text messages sent
through Forde's phone and recorded
conversations between Forde and other
suspects. He said Forde had planned the
crime for months with her fellow
suspects, in meetings out-of-state.
"Even if she didn't pull the trigger
make no mistake about it. She's the one
who planned the events. She's the one
who recruited people to do this,"
Unklesbay said.
Prosecutors also said police recovered
from Forde several items of Gonzalez's
personal jewelry, including her wedding
ring, during a search after her arrest.
ABC affiliate KGUN-TV in Tucson,
Ariz., Associated Press & CNN
contributed to this report.
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