Anti-Illegal Activist Convicted of Murder and May Face Death Penalty

Shawna Forde, an anti-illegal immigration activist, was convicted Monday 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 jury also convicted Forde on two counts of aggravated assault, and one count each of burglary, armed robbery and aggravated robbery.

The jury could begin deliberating on the death penalty case as early as Friday afternoon, the Pima County Attorney’s office said. Her alleged accomplices, Albert Robert Gaxiola and Jason Eugene Bush, are scheduled to go on trial later this year.

During the trial Forde was portrayed as the ringleader of the hit squad, planning the raid and the murders to steal weapons, money and drugs to finance a new anti-illegal immigration outfit.  The trio picked Flores’ home in Arivaca, prosecutors said, because of a claim made by Gaxiola they would find drugs there.  Flores did have a history of drug-related offenses but no drugs were found in the house.

On the night of the murders the Forde, Gaxiola and Bush posed as border patrol and law enforcement officers at at the Flores’ home after midnight.  The victims had returned several hours earlier from a shopping trip in Tucson to buy shoes for Brisenia for summer camp.  Brisenia was sleeping on the couch with her puppy when the group demanded to be let into the home. They accused Flores of harboring illegal aliens and said told the victims house was surrounded by agents.  Once inside, the gunman shot Flores in the chest and Gonzales in the leg. Brisenia was later shot as she pleaded for her life.

Brisenia and her father were both American-born U.S. citizens.

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