Day one in the capital murder trial of Minuteman Shawna Forde began mundanely enough with a conference in Judge John Leonardo’s chamber with the attorney’s on both sides and media representatives present. One of Judge Leonardo’s first ruling in the case in principal was to issue a gag order prohibiting any witnesses that might potentially be called to talk about the case to anyone including radio stations, blogs, email or person to person, television, etc. Not surprisingly, one of the potential witnesses has already seen fit to ignore the Judges order.
Opening statements were the first order of business. For the Prosecution, prosecutor Kellie L. Johnson told the jury ”Not only will the state prove to you that Shawna Forde was in that house that night, barking orders and telling people what to do, the state will prove that Shawna Forde organized and planned this offense.” With apparent difficulty, Johnson went on to describe the crime and Brisenias last moments.
Up next, defense attorney Eric Larsen told the jurors the state’s case is essentially a donut, with circumstantial evidence all around, but nothing to put Shawna Forde in the middle. He went on to say his client, Shawna Forde is a “big mouth” and an ”exaggerator extraordinaire” for boasting of her plans to rob drug smugglers. Nothing more than a woman who wants to be more than she is, but she wasn’t in the house that morning.
Gina Marie Gonzalez, widow and mother of the murder victims disputes that.
The highlight of the day was the testimony of Gina Gonzalez and we got a glimpse of what transpired on the morning of May 30, 2009.
Gonzalez testified that as she lay on the floor pretending to be dead, in hopes that the shooter would ignore her and leave, listening to her husband dying, the shooter, who evidence will identify as Jason “Gunny” Bush, interrogated 9 year old Brisenia Flores about the whereabouts of her sister. Brisenia told Bush her sister was with her grandmother and Bush demanded to know where she lived. Earlier, Bush had said to Raul, ”Don’t take this personal, but this bullet has your name on it,”
“She was really scared. Her voice was shaking. I know she’s crying and really scared,” Gonzalez cried.
Bush, out of bullet after shooting Raul and Gina, stood there calmly reloading his weapon as Brisenia demanded to know why he had shot her father and why he had shot her mother.Ignoring Brisenias pleas, Bush put the gun to the childs face and pulled the trigger. Gonzalez testified she heard the shot and saw her daughters body go flying across the room. That was followed by a second shot which blew out the back of the child’s head.
Gonzalez testified that the woman in the house looked like Forde, but she said she couldn’t definitively say it was her “because I don’t know her personally.” She failed to identify Forde in a police lineup after the shooting. Some have considered that Forde might have been wearing a brown wig when she entered the house the first time, which would explain Gonzalez confusion in the identifying Forde completely.
More tomorrow as things develop.
Opening statements were the first order of business. For the Prosecution, prosecutor Kellie L. Johnson told the jury ”Not only will the state prove to you that Shawna Forde was in that house that night, barking orders and telling people what to do, the state will prove that Shawna Forde organized and planned this offense.” With apparent difficulty, Johnson went on to describe the crime and Brisenias last moments.
Up next, defense attorney Eric Larsen told the jurors the state’s case is essentially a donut, with circumstantial evidence all around, but nothing to put Shawna Forde in the middle. He went on to say his client, Shawna Forde is a “big mouth” and an ”exaggerator extraordinaire” for boasting of her plans to rob drug smugglers. Nothing more than a woman who wants to be more than she is, but she wasn’t in the house that morning.
Gina Marie Gonzalez, widow and mother of the murder victims disputes that.
The highlight of the day was the testimony of Gina Gonzalez and we got a glimpse of what transpired on the morning of May 30, 2009.
Gonzalez testified that as she lay on the floor pretending to be dead, in hopes that the shooter would ignore her and leave, listening to her husband dying, the shooter, who evidence will identify as Jason “Gunny” Bush, interrogated 9 year old Brisenia Flores about the whereabouts of her sister. Brisenia told Bush her sister was with her grandmother and Bush demanded to know where she lived. Earlier, Bush had said to Raul, ”Don’t take this personal, but this bullet has your name on it,”
“She was really scared. Her voice was shaking. I know she’s crying and really scared,” Gonzalez cried.
Bush, out of bullet after shooting Raul and Gina, stood there calmly reloading his weapon as Brisenia demanded to know why he had shot her father and why he had shot her mother.Ignoring Brisenias pleas, Bush put the gun to the childs face and pulled the trigger. Gonzalez testified she heard the shot and saw her daughters body go flying across the room. That was followed by a second shot which blew out the back of the child’s head.
Gonzalez testified that the woman in the house looked like Forde, but she said she couldn’t definitively say it was her “because I don’t know her personally.” She failed to identify Forde in a police lineup after the shooting. Some have considered that Forde might have been wearing a brown wig when she entered the house the first time, which would explain Gonzalez confusion in the identifying Forde completely.
More tomorrow as things develop.
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3 comments:
Dee :
Thanks for these important and opportune articles.
You have been very persevering and constant in effort and application documenting all these horrors, so that these crimes of Hate are not swept under the rug and forgotten.
Go ahead with your Good Work.
Vicente
This is a brutal story.... I had chills reading it!
Will they reach out and call the training agency for the minuteman american defense to testify? They have been linked to the border patrol auxiliary bpaux.
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