Border vigilante could face death penalty for murders

A former beautician turned self-appointed border vigilante has been found guilty of murdering a 9-year-old girl and her father after raiding their home in search of drug money to finance her group's operations.

Shawna Forde claimed to be the head of a group that would "kick down doors and change America". She may face the death penalty after the verdict by a jury in Arizona.

The case was followed intensely, especially in the American South-West, partly because it shed light on so-called minutemen groups that take it upon themselves to patrol the Mexican border to stop or apprehend illegal migrants. Forde claimed to be the commander of the Minutemen American Defence, MAD.

Jurors heard that in May 2009, Forde and two gunmen burst into the trailer home of Raul Flores, 29, about 15km north of Mexico, claiming to be searching for fugitives.

Prosecutors described how one of the gunmen then shot and killed Flores and his daughter, Brisenia.

The girl's mother, Gina Gonzalez, at first survived by playing dead. She later shot one of the gunmen in the leg after they realised she was still alive.

Prosecutors said the group broke into the home initially in the hope of finding money from drug deals to finance their operations. The two accomplices will be brought to trial later.

"We knew that Shawna Forde was not just an unsavoury character but pretty unbalanced, as well," said Chris Simcox, the leader of another border group called Minutemen Civil Defence Corps, which expelled Forde in 2007 because she claimed to be one of its leaders.

Forde had boasted in the past about robbing drug dealers to fund MAD. Her lawyer, Eric Larsen, told the court that all her boasts were a "tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing".

Gonzalez was in the court for every day of the trial. Her daughter was shot twice in the head.

As well as the two murder convictions, Forde was also found guilty of attempted murder of Gonzalez.

After the jury's verdict Forde said she found the jury's decision "surreal" but she felt "saddened" for the mother who lost her child.

She said: "I wish I could say I was sorry it happened. I am not sorry on my behalf because I didn't do it."

- Independent