Man Gets Death In Anti-Immigrant Killing
TUCSON, AZ - An Arizona jury has given a death sentence to a man who killed a drug dealer and his 9-year-old daughter in a bungled plan to fund an anti-immigrant group.
Jason Bush, 36, is the second person to be sentenced to execution in the case. Shawna Forde was convicted in February of orchestrating the robbery of Raul Junior Flores.
A third defendant is scheduled to go on trial soon.
Jurors decided on the death penalty after beginning deliberations, the Arizona Daily Star reported.
Investigators said Forde, an anti-immigrant activist who had been asked to leave the Minutemen Civil Defense Corps, decided to rob drug dealers to fund a splinter group, Minutemen American Defense. In 2009, Flores and his daughter Brisenia were killed in an invasion of their home and his wife, Gina Gonzalez, survived by playing dead.
In his closing statement, Bush's lawyer, Richard Parrish, said his client has a long history of mental illness. He also criticized Gonzalez for describing her life as "heaven," given the drugs and weapons in the house.
"They want you to think that the Flores and Gonzalez family simply isn't worth your trouble," Deputy Pima County Attorney Rick Unklesbay said.
