Guest Voz - Immigration Clearinghouse: Opening Statements Tuesday in Minuteman Shawna Forde murder trialOpening statements in the capital murder trial of accused Minuteman child killer Shawna Forde, will begin Tuesday, January 25, after attorneys on both sides concluded their voir dire of the pool of 98 potential jurors this afternoon and jury instructions were given .
It began on the morning of May 30, 2009, Raul Flores heard a knock at the door of his Arivaca, Arizona, home. When he opened it, he found a man and a woman claiming to be law-enforcement officers in search of fugitives. Minutes later, the man shot Flores six times, in the head, chest and arm. He died at the scene Then he pumped three bullets into Flores’ wife, Gina Gonzalez, hitting her in the arm, leg and chest. She survived but played dead.
“Why did you shoot my mom?” Gonzalez’s 9-year-old daughter, Brisenia Flores, asked the gunman. Those were her last words. The man put a gun to her head, fired off two rounds,one through the cheek and the other other that blew out the back of her head.
Senseless murder conceived and acted on by Shawna Forde, a notorious nativist who was so zealous in her quest to control the border she came up with a plan to fund her organization; stealing from people she thought were connected with drug cartels.
More than 60 witnesses are expected to take the stand during the trial. According to Kim Smith of the Arizona Daily Star:
•Gonzalez – She will testify that although she was unable to identify Forde as the woman home invader in the days after the slayings, she now believes Forde looks “exactly like her.”
•Oin Oakstar – The ex-con will testify he and Gaxiola wanted to get rid of Flores, a competitor in the drug trade. Oakstar claims the plan was for Bush to shoot Flores outside his home, and nothing was said about a home invasion or harming Flores’ family. Oakstar said he got too drunk to go the night of the slayings. He will also testify he had damaging conversations with the suspects after the shooting.
•Robert “Anglo” Copley and Ronald “Raven” Wedow – The two Colorado men say Forde recruited them to take part in a home invasion in which a second team would gather up drugs, money and weapons, which would be sold to help the Minutemen American Defense.
Copley and Wedow are the two Colorado Minutemen whom Forde approached with her home invasions plans and who later reported the encounter to the FBI.
The state will also present physical evidence that ties Forde to the murders.
According to court documents, prosecutors have damning texts sent between cell phones registered to Forde and Gaxiola, texts that were sent the morning of the slayings. In addition, detectives found jewelry belonging to Gonzalez in Forde’s purse and women’s camouflage clothing in Gaxiola’s house.
If convicted, Prosecutors Rick Unklesbay and Kellie Johnson will go for the death penalty.
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