[Pink.]

Shawna Forde was convicted in the May 2009 vigilante killings of Raul Flores and his daughter, Brisenia.

Arizona jurors decided an anti-illegal immigration activist -- portrayed as the ringleader of a hit squad -- should receive the death penalty for the killings of a Latino man and his 9-year-old daughter, a court spokeswoman said Tuesday.

The Pima County jury's decision, which was unanimous, is binding.

If the jury had not voted for the death penalty, the judge would have decided whether Shawna Forde should have received life with a chance of parole after 35 years or life with no possibility of parole.

Forde was convicted February 14 on eight counts, including two counts of murder for the shooting deaths of Raul Flores and his daughter, Brisenia, and the attempted murder of the child's mother, Gina Gonzales.
The vigilante attacks were in May 2009. The child and her father were American-born U.S. citizens but were targeted by Forde and her hit squad.
Her alleged accomplices, Albert Robert Gaxiola and Jason Eugene Bush, are scheduled to go on trial later this year.

During the trial, prosecutors portrayed Forde as the ringleader, saying she had planned the raid and the murders to steal weapons, money and drugs to finance a new anti-illegal immigration outfit.

The trio picked the Flores home, prosecutors said, because Gaxiola claimed they would find drugs there.

While Flores had a history of drug-related offenses, no drugs were found in the house.

Gina Gonzalez gave a victim impact statement last week.

"I miss my husband, I miss my daughter, I miss my family, I miss my life ... and that's all because of a choice she made," Gonzales said of Forde, according to CNN Tucson affiliate KVOA.

The defense told the jury that Forde has a personality disorder caused by a childhood of abuse, abandonment and living in seven different households by the age of 5, according to KVOA.

The jury also convicted Forde on two counts of aggravated assault and one count each of burglary, armed robbery and aggravated robbery.

[Pink.]

Minuteman Civil Defense Corps
splinter group.
Minutemen American Defense.


The home in which Raul J. Flores and his 10-year-old daughter were killed May 2009 in Arivaca, Ariz. The authorities arrested three members of what they describe as a rogue border patrol.

[Pink.]

[Pink.]

The three people arrested in the crime include the leader of Minutemen American Defense, a Washington State-based offshoot of the Minutemen movement, in which citizens roam the border looking for people crossing into the country illegally. Former members describe the group’s leader, Shawna Forde, 41, as having anti-immigrant sentiments that are extreme, at times frightening, even to people accustomed to hard-line views on border policing

The authorities say that the three suspects were after money and drugs that they intended to use to finance vigilantism, and that members of the group may have been involved in at least one other home invasion, in California.

“There was an anticipation that there would be a considerable amount of cash at this location,” said Sheriff Clarence Dupnik, since, he said, Ms. Gonzalez’s husband, Raul J. Flores, had previously been involved in narcotics trafficking, an assertion the family denies.

[AmericanIllusions]

You know these were simply bigots getting their rocks off under the guise of "patriotism". I'd like to hear this woman's views on the state of America, seriously.

[Pink.]

they will tell everyone that they are protecting the constitution and the american way of life.

[Kyle416]

Good on this one.
The mother, who lost her child and husband, is in a released audio of the 911 call in the other forum which was pretty heart breaking.
Usually I see a case like this and never find out results because the wheels of justice move so slow, but I'm glad I stumbled on this one, and a fitting, harsh penalty.

[niknik]

Originally Posted by Pink. ↗

The three people arrested in the crime include the leader of Minutemen American Defense, a Washington State-based offshoot of the Minutemen movement, in which citizens roam the border looking for people crossing into the country illegally. Former members describe the group’s leader, Shawna Forde, 41, as having anti-immigrant sentiments that are extreme, at times frightening, even to people accustomed to hard-line views on border policing

The authorities say that the three suspects were after money and drugs that they intended to use to finance vigilantism, and that members of the group may have been involved in at least one other home invasion, in California.

“There was an anticipation that there would be a considerable amount of cash at this location,” said Sheriff Clarence Dupnik, since, he said, Ms. Gonzalez’s husband, Raul J. Flores, had previously been involved in narcotics trafficking, an assertion the family denies.

They were not part of the minute men. That part is not true.

[joethurr]

vigilante's rule!

[Zombie_Reaper]

I want that Ford F150 in the pic. Mr. Flores HAD good taste.

Sad to hear. Woman should be