![](http://web.archive.org./web/20230422093827im_/http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HihBId-Q9GM/VKGzJWWkXAI/AAAAAAAABwc/j9SbcTPjvQU/s1600/Gaxiola.jpg) |
[Albert Gaxiola, left, in the courtroom, with his attorney, Steve West] |
[Cross-posted at Crooks and Liars.]
The case of
Shawna Forde and her killer Minutemen -- who in 2009 broke into a home in rural Arizona and
killed a 9-year-old girl and her father
-- is really, as you'd imagine, a story featuring a cast of depraved
characters, led of course by Forde, who was convicted in February and
now sits on Arizona's death row. Likewise, the gunman in the case, Jason
Bush -- a onetime Aryan Nations member and general nutcase -- is
now awaiting execution.
But if the case prosecutors presented holds up -- and the evidence,
frankly, is powerfully damning -- there was a special level of depravity
reached by Albert Gaxiola, the third defendant in the case, whose trial
I have been covering this week under the auspices of
the Investigative Fund of the Nation Institute.
That's because Gaxiola had been a longtime friend of the Flores family
and was adored by their two little girls, Brisenia and Alexandra -- and
yet he evidently not only set them up for murder, he accompanied the
gang of killers inside as they ransacked the home and Brisenia lay dying
on a couch.
I knew some of this from
having talked with people in Arivaca in February.
But it all came out in court this week, when the mother and only
survivor of the home invasion, Gina Gonzalez, testified to that effect.
Dave Ricker, the Green Valley News reporter who really has owned this story since it happened,
has the details:
After hearing a recording of a 9-1-1 emergency center
call made by the surviving victim in the fatal home invasion the jury
heard Gonzalez relive for the third time from the witness stand the
night she was wounded and her husband and daughter were shot to death
before her eyes.
After she had been shot, Gonzalez decided to play dead in hopes of
surviving. “I laid on the floor very scared,” she said. “I heard Junior
taking his last breaths.”
Eventually, the tall male, Jason Bush, who was doing the shooting of
the victims, addressed Brisenia, who by now had awakened. Bush asked her
about the location of her older sister. “He was telling her that
nothing was going to happen to her and that everything was going to be
okay,” Gonzalez related. “She was crying a lot. She was scared.”
Brisenia told the Bush that her sister was staying with her
grandmother’s house. Brisenia was asked if the body on the floor in
front of the love seat was her sister. “At first she said yes. Then she
tips over and looks and says ‘that’s my mom; why did you shoot my mom?’”
Gonzalez said.
At that point, Bush paused to reload his weapon as Brisenia watched.
“I could hear him put the bullets in the gun,” Gonzalez said. “She was
begging him not to shoot her.”
What followed were two more blasts from his gun in the direction of
her daughter. “He shot her. I saw her fly back. He shot her twice,”
Gonzalez said.
By that time the female intruder told her compatriots that they had
to leave, but they paused first to search the Flores home for money and
drugs. After they left, Gonzalez did what any mother would do. “I sat up
and grabbed Brisenia. I was telling her not to die on me,” she
testified. “She was shaking really hard.”
Gonzalez was able to get to a portable phone on an ottoman close by,
thus she call 9-1-1. “I asked them what I should do,” she recalled.
At that point, Gonzalez notice that the female leader of the home
invasion crew, Shawna Forde, re-entered the home with a big smile on her
face. “I’m panicking; I’m freaking out; a million things are going
through my head,” she said.
Gonzalez decided to try to get to her husband’s gun in the kitchen,
as she made her way to the kitchen her leg snapped. Eventually, she
retrieved the gun and used it to exchange gunshots with the tall male
shooter, who had reentered her home, wounding him in the leg.
As you can imagine, this was truly gut-wrenching testimony in a week
full of such moments. One of the more damning pieces of evidence was the
fact that Gaxiola's DNA turned up all over an AK-47 the perpetrators
idiotically left behind at the scene, sitting on top of the kitchen
stove. Defense attorneys, as you can imagine, tried their damnedest to
cast doubt on that particular piece of evidence, and spent the better
part of Friday afternoon in that attempt. Whether they succeeded or not
remains to be seen, but it was a highly technical bit of arguing and did
not sound terribly convincing -- especially considering that the
kitchen is where, as it happens, Gina Gonzalez happened to earlier
testify she thought she had heard a voice like Albert's speaking while
the house was being ransacked.
We also had a brief flurry of concern yesterday involving one of the
potential witnesses in the case, Laine Lawless -- an extremist nutcase
who was involved in
the post-murder logistics between Forde and Gaxiola. Lawless had previously
tried to enter the courtroom in disguise, even though she had been barred.
One of yesterday's witnesses bore an unfortunate resemblance to Lawless
and some of the deputies were concerned that she was about to try the
same stunt -- but it was, of course, a false alarm.
Be sure and read
Ricker's complete coverage of the case, as well as that of my friend and colleague
Terri Greene Sterling, who was also in court this week.
Unfortunately, I have to return home this week and will be relying on
my colleagues, including the superb Kim Smith of the Arizona Daily Star
(who also has a
good wrapup of this week's trial), to keep you updated.
Coming up: We'll hear from the dubious Oin Oakstar again, and we'll
probably learn more about that Border Patrol uniform they found in
Gaxiola's home. (Gonzalez testified that the "Mexican" man she saw poke
his head in the door briefly -- the one she thought looked like Gaxiola
-- was wearing a Border Patrol uniform.)