In Memory of Brisenia Flores
This is just breaking around the media services:
Border Activist Sentenced to Death for Fatal Home Invasion
Pima County Sheriff's Dept./AP: Shawna Forde, 43, has been sentenced to death for the murders of a 9-year-old Arizona girl and her father, who were shot during a 2009 home invasion.
Feb 22, 2011 - A border-control activist was sentenced to death today for orchestrating an Arizona home invasion that left a man and his 9-year-old daughter dead.
A jury in Pima County, Ariz., deliberated for four hours over two days before deciding that Shawna Forde, 43, should pay the ultimate penalty, the Arizona Daily Star reported. She joins two other women on Arizona's death row.
Forde was convicted Feb. 14 of first-degree murder in the May 30, 2009, deaths of Raul "Junior" Flores, 29, and his daughter, Brisenia Flores, 9. She was also found guilty of attempted murder in the shooting of Gina Gonzalez, Flores' wife and Brisenia's mother.
Prosecutors said Forde decided to target the house in Arivaca, Ariz., because she believed Flores was a drug smuggler and would have cash in the house. She wanted money to fund her border protection group, Minutemen American Defense, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors said Forde decided to target the house in Arivaca, Ariz., because she believed Flores was a drug smuggler and would have cash in the house. She wanted money to fund her border protection group, Minutemen American Defense, prosecutors said.
Two men are also charged in the case and face trial later. If convicted, they too could face the death penalty. {continued}
Murders of Raul and Brisenia Flores
On May 30, 2009, Raul "Junior" Flores, 29, and his daughter, Brisenia, 10, of Arivaca, Arizona, were murdered during a home-invasion.
Gina Marie Gonzalez, 31, Junior's wife, was in the home during the attack. Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik said the attackers hoped to rob the Flores-Gonzales family. Gonzalez called 911 when the assailants left the home for a few moments. While Gonzalez was on the phone, the assailants reentered the home and Gonzalez fired a handgun of her husband's, wounding one of the assailants.
An early exchange within the 911 call is as follows:
Gonzalez: "They shot me and I pretended like I was dead. My daughter was crying. They shot her, too.
Operator: "Are they still there, the people who, that shot them?"
Gonzalez: "They're coming back in! They're coming back in!" (Gunfire.)[1]
Another Flores daughter, 12, had been at her grandmother's home in Sahuarita, Arizona, during the attack.[2] Gonzalez identified two men, one "white," the other "Mexican," and a white woman as her attackers.[3] Gonzales said it was the white man who had murdered her daughter and husband. {continued - wikipedia site page}
I'm not fond at all as to the death penalties, but in this case and when it concerns the brutal killing of a child, she's getting what she deserves!!