Ricker's Radar Screen

Alternate histories present an opportunity to think outside of the box

2012-06-26T07:32:00.001-07:00

In the world of author Harry Turtledove there were actually four wars, instead of just one, fought between the United States of America and the Confederate States of America.

Harry Turtledove

The starting point for Turtledove’s alternate version of history is Sept. 10, 1862. In our reality, a Confederate messenger lost Special Order 191, which provided details for Gen. Robert E. Lee’s invasion plans. After the orders were intercepted by Union troops, Gen. George McClellan stopped the Army of Northern Virginia at the Battle of Antietam and the war continued for more than two more years.

In Turtledove’s “How Few Remain,” the orders are recovered and delivered to Lee. Thus, McClellan is caught by surprise by the Army of Northern Virginia as it advances towards Philadelphia and the Battle of Camp Hill on Oct. 1 on the banks of the Susquehanna River destroying the Army of the Potomac. Lee goes on to capture Philadelphia earning the Confederate States of America diplomatic recognition from both the United Kingdom and France. With the end of the War of Secession the Confederate States are granted independence from the United States on Nov. 4, 1862.

After the war’s conclusion, Kentucky joins the 11 original Confederate states, and the Confederacy is also given Indian Territory, which we would call the state of Oklahoma, but in Turtledove’s scenario it is referred to the state of Sequoyah. The Spanish-owned island of Cuba is purchased by the Confederate States in the 1870s for $3 million, thus also becoming a Confederate territory.

Also, President Abraham Lincoln is defeated in his bid for re-election in 1864 and thus is not assassinated at Ford’s Theater in April 1865.

In 1881, Republican James G. Blaine is elected as the first president from his political party since Lincoln. It is a time of Indian raids into the territory of each country. Tension reaches it’s high point when Confederate President James “Old Pete” Longstreet purchases the northwestern provinces of Sonora and Chihuahua from the financially strapped Maximilian-ruled Mexican Empire for $3 million. That act, giving the Confederates a Pacific port, Guaymas, precipitated what Turtledove called the Second Mexican War as the United States declares war on the Confederacy. Gen. Thomas J. Jackson, old “Stonewall,” general-in-chief of the Confederate Army, is ready and eager to strike at the Yankees once more. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart is in the Sonoran Desert defending the new Confederate territories from the Yankees. Stuart forms an alliance with the Apaches under Geronimo. Eventually, that alliance falls apart.

Meanwhile, Union cavalry Col. George Armstrong Custer uses Gatling guns against Kiowa Indians and the Confederate cavalry in Kansas. During the war, the Mormons in Utah rebel by severing transcontinental communication and transportation around Salt Lake City. Former President Lincoln is in Salt Lake City at the time of the rebellion as part of a nationwide lecture tour on the benefits of socialism as espoused by Karl Marx. The U.S. military governor, puts down the revolt, and imposes martial law declaring the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints a political organization resulting in Mormon leaders being hunted down and executed. Lincoln is also detained and almost executed by the military.

The attempt by the United States to invade Virginia is easily thrown back by Gen. Stonewall Jackson. Gen. William Rosecrans, the commander of the entire U.S. army, casually reveals at one point that there is no overall strategy for winning the war whatsoever. This lack of planning leaves the German military observer, Alfred von Schlieffen, aghast.

The United States next attempts to launch a massive invasion of Louisville to knock the Confederates out of Kentucky but it soon becomes a bloody stalemate. The United Kingdom and France shell the Great Lakes ports; France also shells Los Angeles, while the British bombard San Francisco and raid the Federal mint, an event reported by newspaper editor Samuel Langhorne Clemens.

Meanwhile, in the Montana Territory a young volunteer cavalry colonel, Theodore Roosevelt and Col. George Armstrong Custer reluctantly work together to rout a British division under the command of Gen. Charles “Chinese” Gordon after an invasion from Canada.

Finally, facing defeat on almost all fronts, Republican President James G. Blaine is forced to capitulate. A Republican is never again elected to the White House. The United States, learning the importance of strong allies, seeks an alliance with the newly formed and powerful German Empire.

Turtledove’s next novel “The Great War: American Front” begins on June 28, 1914, the same day Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated in Sarajevo.

World War I breaks out and spreads to North America, where the pro-German United States under Democratic President Theodore Roosevelt declares war on Confederate President Woodrow Wilson, which is allied with Great Britain and France.

The novel ends in the autumn of 1915, with the beginning of a Marxist black rebellion against the war-distracted government of the CSA.

Most of the characters in the books are small-time folks being caught up in the bigger world of a global war. One main character whose destiny will be intertwined with that of the twentieth century is an artillery sergeant named Jake Featherston.

This book is followed by “The Great War: Walk in Hell” and then “The Great War: Breakthroughs.” Eventually, the United States is victorious with territorial gains that include Kentucky, portions of Virginia and Sonora, as well as the oil-rich Indian lands known as the state of Sequoyah.

Jake Featherston’s immediate superior is Capt. J.E.B. Stuart III, who has a Negro servant who appears to sympathize with the Marxist black rebellion. Featherston points this out to investigators, but Stuart hides the servant and then he allows himself to be killed in battle. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart II, chief of the Confederate Army general staff, attempts to protect the reputation of his son by blocking the promotion of Featherston to officer rank for the duration of the war.

The next installment of Turtledove’s version of history is the three-book “American Empire” series.

Following the Great War, the United States and German Empire are the dominant world powers. Having led the U.S. to victory, President Theodore Roosevelt looses his third-term bid to the Socialist candidate Upton Sinclair.

Meanwhile, in a defeated Confederacy wracked by inflation and despair, the former Confederate Army sergeant Jake Featherston and his Freedom Party are preaching a message of hate, blaming the southern aristocracy and the Negro Marxist rebellion for the Confederacy’s defeat.

As the 1920s draw to a close the world economy crashes and the Great Depression begins, paving the way for fanatics and demagogues the world over to seize power.

The “American Empire” series is followed by the “Settling Accounts” tetralogy, which starts on June 22, 1941, with Confederate President Jake Featherston launching a war with aerial bombing attacks on all major U.S. cities within reach of the border, followed by an invasion of Ohio from Kentucky, which is cut in half by Confederate ground and armored forces led by Confederate Gen. George S. Patton.

Before the war began Featherston had launched a campaign of genocide against the country’s black population. One can see parallels with the genocide of the Jews in our timeline. Meanwhile, the Mormon population of Utah rebels against the United States with support from the CSA, and proclaims the state of Deseret, forcing the United States to send troops to try to put down the uprising. And, Japan attacks the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii), sinking a U.S. carrier and threatening to capture the islands, and taking Midway Island, resulting in fierce naval and air battles.

Both sides launch air raids on enemy cities, and Confederate aircraft manage to kill Socialist U.S. President Al Smith during a raid on Philadelphia, forcing the inexperienced Vice-President Charlie LaFollette to take office

Later in the war, both sides are desperately seeking a nuclear bomb, and the Confederates try to stall the U.S. nuclear program by bombing the U.S. nuclear project site in Washington, to which the U.S. replies by bombing the Confederate nuclear research site in Virginia.

The U.S. demands the CSA’s unconditional surrender: the Confederates refuse and fire two long-range rockets into Philadelphia. With British aid, the Confederacy produces a fission bomb and “nukes” the outskirts of Philadelphia. The U.S. responds by dropping nuclear bombs on Newport News and Charleston. Nuclear bombs also destroy six cities in Europe, Petrograd, Paris, Hamburg, London, Brighton, and Norwich.

Texas declares independence from the Confederacy and arrests extermination camp officials. Featherston attempts to escape to the deep South, but his plane is shot down, and he is killed by an anti-Confederate guerrilla.

Confederate Vice President Don Partridge then takes office, and agrees to unconditionally surrender to the United States. Top Confederate officials are arrested, tried, and most of them are executed. The Confederates involved in the murder of blacks are also extradited from Texas, tried for crimes against humanity, and hanged.

The U.S. dissolves the Confederate government and places the country under indefinite military occupation. The revolt in Canada is also suppressed, and Texas remains independent but hosts U.S. troops on its soil.

These series of books show that Turtledove is the virtual master of alternate reality. He inserts familiar names from our reality to see if the reader is paying attention. The plot he weaves is so real you find yourself believing it rather than what

Brisenia Flores is at eternal rest while two of her three killers face an uncertain future

2011-08-15T13:44:00.001-07:00

Raul & Brisenia
Flores

Undocumented persons who enter the United States illegally have raised concerns among certain elements of the population in recent times. Ironically, it was the brutal murder of a 9-year-old Hispanic American born and raised in the rural southern Arizona community of Arivaca by persons affiliated with an anti-immigration splinter group that momentarily struck a raw nerve in our society.

Home invasion

During an early morning invasion of the home Raul “Junior” Flores and Gina Gonzalez, staged by Shawna Forde, founder of Minuteman American Defense, Jason Bush, a white supremacist and reputed local drug dealer Albert Gaxiola, the lives of Junior and his daughter, Brisenia, were snuffed out when they were brutally shot and killed and Gina was severely wound by two gunshots

If not for the desire to attend a birthday party in Arivaca for another young Hispanic American on May 30, 2009, Brisenia might still be with us. Otherwise, Brisenia might have stayed the night of May 29-30 with her maternal grandparents in the Santo Tomas area of the town of Sahuarita and avoided a brutal murder, as did her older sister Alexandra, who had also been invited to the same birthday party, but decided not to attend.

Gina Gonzalez

Brisenia and her parents, Junior and Gina, had traveled the 40-plus miles from Arivaca to Tucson the afternoon of May 29, 2009, to shop and to pay bills. Gina testified during the three trials for Forde, Bush and Gaxiola, that Brisenia was going to attend summer school in the Sahuarita Unified School District, thus she needed new shoes. They had also hoped to stop by a bank in order to procure a money order to pay charges recently placed on a credit card for a vacation trip the family had taken. Brisenia got her new shoes, but the banks were closed by the time they arrived in Tucson, so the bill went unpaid.

On the way home to Arivaca, the Flores family stopped at the home of Gina’s mother and father in Santo Tomas. Alexandra and Gina’s younger sister, Diana, were expected to return to Arivaca that night, but Alexandra persuaded her parents to allow her to stay another night at her grandparents and Diana was not feeling well and decided not to make the trip. Those decisions possibly saved their lives, as the death toll could have been five instead of two.

What brought together an Hispanic family of born-and-bread American citizens and a the leader of a splinter border-watch group from the state of Washington, a white supremacist from Oregon and a reputed drug dealer from Arivaca? It’s simple, greed and financial gain.

Cast of characters

Shawna Forde had come to the Arizona/Mexico border to participate in efforts to stem illegal immigration from Mexico after failed careers as a teenage prostitute, a manufacturing job at Boeing Aircraft and an unsuccessful election attempt to become a member of the Everett, Wash., city council.

Jason Bush had come to southern Arizona after being “recruited” by Forde. Forde thought she had found Bush, but there are indications that he sought her out hoping to gain sought favorable capital with federal law enforcement agencies looking into Forde’s activities on the border. Bush is a self-proclaimed white supremacist who masqueraded as a former army ranger and black ops secret agent with the self-proclaimed nickname of “Gunny” a shorthand referral to the rank of gunnery sergeant in the U.S. Marine Corps.

Albert Gaxiola as not born or raised in Arivaca, but had lived on-and-off in that southern Arizona community since his late teens drawn by the easy money of drug smuggling introduced to him by his mother and grandfather. Gaxiola and Forde reportedly met one night in the local watering hole, La Gitana Cantina where trial testimony indicated that Forde had picked a cigarette from Gaxiola’s lips and crushed it on the floor demonstrating to him that she was a person with a plan that would benefit him and her.

Albert Gaxiola
(pool photo by Benjie
Sanders/Arizona Daily Star)

Minutemen

After Forde was kicked out of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps she founded Minuteman American Defense (MAD). It’s one thing to found an organization and it’s another thing to generate the funding to pay for that organization’s activities. That’s where her encounter with Gaxiola at the bar provided her with a plan that she hoped would provide the funds for her organization.

Sheriff Clarence W.
Dupnik

Forde learned from Gaxiola that he was one of the local drug smugglers who had perceived competition in the person of Junior Flores. Early in the investigation of the fatal home invasion, Pima County Sheriff Clarence W. Dupnik told media representatives that Flores was “a large dealer” who likely had connections to large Mexican drug cartels and that Flores “has a history of being involved in narcotics.” Dupnik provided no tangible evidence other than his comments to back up those claims and a search of local court records yielded no indication of previous arrests, prosecutions or convictions on drug-related charges for Flores. When asked during the Forde trial Gina denied that her husband was a drug dealer. Detectives, however, found plastic wrapping materials commonly used for packaging marijuana in a barn on the Flores family property. Arivaca residents who testified during all three trials said it was common knowledge that Junior was a drug dealer. It would appear that while Junior was not convicted in a court of law, he had been judged to be guilty in the court of public opinion in the community of Arivaca.

Oin Oakstar
(pool photo by Benjie
Sanders/Arizona Daily
Star)

Rivals

Gaxiola and his drug-smuggling partner, Oin Oakstar, looked upon Junior Flores as their competition, pure and simple. Oakstar testified at all three trials that both he and Gaxiola schemed for several months about ways to eliminate, a polite word of kill, Flores thus removing him as their competition in the marijuana smuggling business. However, Oakstar testified that the killing of Flores and his daughter during the May 30, 2009, home invasion were a breach of the so-called “Arivaca Rules.” Those rules, according to Oakstar, were that the killing of a rival drug dealer was a cost of doing business. At the same time, according to Oakstar the “Arivaca Rules” specify that the rival drug dealer’s wife and children are off-limits.

Forde tried to recruit help in her get rich scheme from some fellow “minutemen” in Colorado. They turned out to be informants for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), who testified at her trial. These informants met with Forde and she told them that she had a “scout” in Arivaca looking at potential targets where money and drugs could be easily taken. Forde also told the FBI informants that she wanted to start her own organization on a model similar to the private military-style security firm known as Blackwater and that the funding would come from taking down drug smugglers in southern Arizona. They told her they would consider her proposal, privately chuckling about it later. These informants contacted their handlers in Denver who contacted the FBI Office in Phoenix. They even supplied the FBI with a map of potential targets in Arivaca. That map disappeared from the FBI evidence locker in Phoenix and at last report had been destroyed.

Plans set in motion

Fast-forward to the afternoon of May 29, 2009. Gina and Brisenia are in the front yard of their home looking for a missing set of keys. A teal-colored Astro van drives by very slowly with Bush behind the wheel and Forde in the front passenger seat. What Gina did not know until later was that the van belonged to Gaxiola and Oakstar was crouched down behind Forde and Bush guiding them as they scoped out the Flores home.

Later that night, Gaxiola returned to Arivaca from Tucson and stopped by the home where Oakstar was staying with his girlfriend. Oakstar convinced Gaxiola that he was too drunk and full of drugs to go along on the operation to take out Junior Flores. Oakstar testified that he and Gaxiola had discussed killing Junior by sniper. Given the activities earlier in the day, Oakstar suspected there would be a different approach to killing Junior. Sometime between 12:30 and 1 a.m., Forde and Bush banged on the front door of the Flores home demanding entrance in the guise of law enforcement officers searching for escapees.

Murder

Once inside the Flores home, Junior, Gina and Brisenia were confronted in the living room. Junior was the first to be killed as Bush shot him six times with a .45 caliber handgun that has never been found. Gina was shot twice, first in the right leg breaking the femur and then in the right chest as she is falling to the ground. That bullet exited under her right breast. Gina had a titanium rod inserted in her femur from the hip to the knee.

Up until that point, Brisenia had been asleep on the love seat in the living room and she started to wake up as her mother pretended to be dead on the floor. Bush questioned Brisenia as to the whereabouts of her sister Alexandra pointing to Gina asking if she was her sister. Brisenia becomes upset when she realized that her mother and father appeared to be dead. Bush reloaded his .45 caliber handgun and shoots Brisenia twice in the face. Bush claimed Gaxiola gave him the handgun he used to kill Junior and his daughter and that he did so as Forde and Gaxiola pointed their weapons at him.

While pretending to be dead, Gina heard her daughter killed, the last sounds of her husband’s life ending and the search of her home. Gina heard two additional males enter her home speaking in Spanish. Later, she recognized one of the voices as that of Gaxiola. The fourth person she heard in her home has never been identified or charged.

Gunfight

After searching for drugs and money, but not finding any, the Fore, Bush, Gaxiola and the unidentified male leave the Flores home. Gina manages to get up and check on the condition of Brisenia and she called 9-1-1 on her phone. Despite her leg wound, Gina made her way to the kitchen and retrieved a .40 caliber handgun kept there by Junior. The home invaders reentered the Flores home when they realized that an AK-47 rifle had been left behind. Such a rifle with DNA from Gaxiola, Forde and Bush was found on the stove in the kitchen of the Flores home. A gunfight ensued between Gina and Bush with Bush sustaining a gunshot wound to his leg. His blood was found outside of the Flores home and in the teal blue van.

Chuck Stonex

The morning of May 30, 2009, Oakstar was asked to take pain medication to Gaxiola’s home for Bush. Detectives arrested Oakstar as he walked back to where he was staying in Arivaca. Forde contacted another minuteman crony from New Mexico who was in Arizona to attend a cookout in Hereford. She asked Chuck Stonex to purchase some medical supplies and to come to Arivaca to attend to Bush’s leg wound.

Laine Lawless attempted to
enter the courtroom in
disguise despite being a
witness.

On the evening of May 30, Stonex and Laine Lawless, founder of Border Guardians, traveled to Arivaca to attend to Bush’s gunshot wound and for Lawless to meet Forde. Stonex testified that he met Lawless for the first time at the cookout in Hereford. In Arivaca, Stonex treated the Bush leg wound and Lawless agreed to take a set of keys for Forde’s car to Gaxiola in Tucson. The next day, Gaxiola drove Forde’s car to Arivaca and Forde and Bush went to Tucson where they spent the night in a motel after Stonex joined them for dinner. Within the next couple of weeks, Forde was arrested in Cochise County. Bush was arrested outside of Kingman and Gaxiola was taken into custody in Tucson.

Trials

Forde was the first defendant tried before Judge John S. Leonardo in Pima County Superior Court. She was convicted on all eight counts including the two counts of first-degree murder. The jury sentenced her to death on both murder counts and Leonardo sentenced her to an additional 65 years in prison on the other six counts. The death penalty convictions and sentences were automatically appealed to the Arizona Supreme Court.

Bush was the next defendant to be tried. He was convicted on all eight counts including the two counts of first-degree murder. The jury sentenced him to death on both murder counts and Leonardo sentenced him to an additional 78 years in prison on the other six counts. The death penalty convictions and sentences were automatically appealed to the Arizona Supreme Court.

Judge John S. Leonardo

Gaxiola was the third and final defendant to be tried. He was convicted on all eight counts including the two counts of first-degree murder. The jury sentenced him to life in prison for the murder of Junior Flores, but was unable to decide the appropriate sentence for the murder of Brisenia. The prosecution could have asked the court for a new jury to be empaneled to hear evidence regarding the appropriate penalty, however the prosecution decided to withdraw its notice to seek the death penalty allowing Leonardo to sentence Gaxiola on the two murder convictions as well as the other six counts. For the murder of Brisenia Flores, Gaxiola was sentenced to natural life in prison. For the murder of Raul Flores he was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of applying for parole after serving 25 calendars years. On the remaining six counts, Gaxiola received 54 years in prison to be served consecutively to the sentences in the two murder counts.

Gaxiola sentenced natural life in prison

2011-08-15T13:20:00.000-07:00

Albert Gaxiola
(pool photo by Mamta
Popat/Arizona
Daily Star)

Pima County Superior Court Judge John S. Leonardo sentenced former Arivaca resident Albert Robert Gaxiola, Monday morning, to natural life in the Arizona Department of Corrections for the May 30, 2009, murder of 9-year-old Brisenia Flores during a home invasion in Arivaca.

In addition, Gaxiola was sentenced to life in prison with the opportunity to apply for parole after serving 25 calendar years for the murder of Raul “Junior” Flores, Brisenia’s father.

On July 1, a Pima County Superior Court jury returned guilty verdicts against Gaxiola, 44, on two counts of first-degree murder as well as six other counts. On July 15, during the penalty phase of the trial the jury sentenced Gaxiola, who was facing the death penalty, to life in prison for the first-degree murder of Raul Flores, but was unable to reach a verdict on the sentence for the murder of Brisenia Flores. The prosecution opted to withdraw the death request regarding the murder of Brisenia Flores after consulting with the surviving victim, Gina Gonzalez.

Prior to pronouncing sentence, Leonardo was asked by Deputy County Attorney Rick Unklesbay to impose natural life sentences for both murder convictions. “By case law, the court doesn’t need any aggravating factors,” he said. “The court may chose between natural life and or life with parole based on the facts that you heard at the trial.”

Defense counsel Jack L. Lansdale argued for life in prison with the possibility of parole and concurrent sentences for all of the charges. “In reality, when we’re dealing with this much time and a gentleman who was 42-years-old when he was taken into custody what we’re talking about may be academic,” he said. Lansdale calculated that the best-case scenario would allow his client to apply for parole after he had turned 77-years-old.

Sentences imposed Monday:

· Count 1—first-degree murder—natural life in prison, no parole opportunity.

· Count 2—first-degree murder—life in prison, with the opportunity to apply for parole after serving 25 calendar years.

· Count 3—burglary in the first degree—10.5 years.

· Count 4—attempted first-degree murder—10.5 years.

· Count 5—aggravated assault, serious physical injury—7.5 years.

· Count 6—aggravated assault with a deadly weapon—7.5 years.

· Count 7—armed robbery—10.5 years.

· Count 8—aggravated robbery—7.5 years.

The sentences for counts two through eight will be served consecutively to each other and to the sentence of natural life in prison received for count one. Depending upon how you choose to add it up the sentences for counts three through eight add up to an additional 54 years in prison. If you add the possibility of applying for parole after 25 years as the sentence in count two allows then Gaxiola received an additional 79 years in prison on top of the sentence to life in prison.

After the sentencing hearing Lansdale said there were plans for an appeal, but he was uncertain if he would handle it or another attorney would handle it. “I’d like to do it because we’re so familiar with the case,” he said.

Lansdale said the sentences Gaxiola received were what he had anticipated. “In the trial phase we hoped to raise a reasonable doubt, but we didn’t do that,” he said. “So, it was avoid the death penalty. What’s really the difference between 35 to life and natural life? He would get out when he’s 80-years-old.”

Gaxiola’s sister, Sonia Muniz flew in from California to attend the sentencing hearing. “I am relieved that Albert’s not on death row,” she said. “I will be with him to the end of this. I know he is innocent. He didn’t kill anyone.”

Gonzalez and members of her family had submitted letters containing sentencing recommendations to Leonardo prior to the hearing. The judge, who noted that the letters were “confidential,” denied a request for copies of those letters.

Previously, codefendant Shawna Forde received sentences of death on the two murder charges and an additional 65 years in prison for the other charges. Codefendant Jason Bush received two death sentences for the murder charges plus an additional 78 years in prison on the other charges.

At sentencing for Forde and Bush, Leonardo ordered $11,864 in restitution to Gonzalez and to her mother for funeral expenses and other costs. The amount of restitution had grown to over $13,000 as of Monday’s hearing. Leonardo gave the attorneys 30 days to work out the discrepancy.

Gaxiola no longer faces the death penalty for the murder of Brisenia Flores

2011-07-29T11:59:00.000-07:00

Brisenia Flores

Former Arivaca resident Albert Robert Gaxiola no longer faces the death penalty in connection with the May 30, 2009, murder of 9-year-old Brisenia Flores during a home invasion that saw her father killed and mother seriously wounded.

On July 15, a Pima County Superior Court jury sentenced Gaxiola, 44, to life in prison for the shooting death of Raul “Junior” Flores. The jury was unable to reach a decision regarding the appropriate punishment in the death of Brisenia.

Judge John S. Leonardo granted the motion withdrawing the death notice during a hearing Friday morning. Deputy County Attorney Rick Unklesbay told Leonardo that the Homicide Panel in the county attorney’s office had reviewed the pros and cons of continuing to seek the death penalty and that he and Deputy County Attorney Kellie Johnson had spoken with surviving victim Gina Gonzalez as to her preference. “It’s important for Mr. Gaxiola to know that Ms. Gonzalez was in agreement to withdraw this notice,” he said.

On July 1, Gaxiola, 44, was found guilty on two counts of first-degree murder in the shooting deaths of Flores and his daughter, as well as six other charges including attempted first-degree murder in connection with the wounding of surviving victim Gina Gonzalez.

A sentencing hearing on all eight counts is scheduled for Aug. 15 at 10:30 a.m. Now that the death request has been withdrawn Leonardo will have the option of sentencing Gaxiola to natural life in prison or life in prison with an opportunity to apply for a parole hearing after he has served 35 calendar years in prison. The 35-year threshold applies in Brisenia’s case because she was younger than 15-years-old.

In regards to the murder of Raul Flores, Leonardo could sentence Gaxiola to natural life in prison or with an opportunity to apply for a parole hearing after he has served 25 calendar years. Earlier this year, co-defendants Shawna Forde and Jason Eugene Bush were each sentenced to death by juries on the murder counts involving Raul and Brisenia Flores and they received additional prison time, Forde 65 years and Bush 78 years, for their convictions on the other six counts. Leonardo will have the option to hand down similar sentences to Gaxiola on Aug. 15.

Gaxiola given life in prison for the murder of Raul Flores, no verdict on murder of Brisenia Flores

2011-07-15T16:22:00.000-07:00

Albert Gaxiola
(pool photo by Mamta
Popat/Arizona Daily
Star)

Relief was the expression found on the faces of former Arivaca resident Albert Robert Gaxiola and members of his defense team on Friday afternoon as a Pima County Superior Court jury sentenced him to life in prison for the May 30, 2009, shooting death of Arivaca resident Raul “Junior” Flores. The jury was unable to reach a decision regarding the appropriate punishment in the death of 9-year-old Brisenia Flores.

Relief

The jury of seven males and five females took a little over 11 hours before returning their verdicts to a surprised audience of onlookers in the courtroom of Judge John S. Leonardo. “I’m relieved,” said defense counsel Steven D. West, immediately following the reading of the verdict.

West said Gaxiola had similar feelings. “I think he was greatly relieved,” West said.

West was unable to pinpoint what evidence the defense had presented that led the jury to the verdict of life in prison. “I’m sure the family emotion, I would think, had some effect on them,” he said, referring to the numerous members of Gaxiola’s family who testified during the sentencing phase of the trial. “They sincerely appeared like they cared about Albert greatly.”

Obviously, West and his client were prepared for a death sentence. “I think we all did. I wasn’t inside Albert’s head, but I’m sure that he was,” he said.

Gaxiola’s sister, Sonia Muniz who testified during the penalty phase of the trial was at home in California when she heard news if the verdict. “As we understand it right now, we’re happy with the outcome,” she said. “This isn’t the end of the world and there’s still more to come. We haven’t exhaled completely.”

Muniz agreed with west that it was Gaxiola’s family that made a difference in the outcome. “During the mitigation phase we were able to paint his character and the jury was able to see that,” she said.

West admitted he is not an expert when guessing what juries will do, but the verdict they returned with the hung jury of the murder conviction involving Brisenia was surprising. “I would have never guessed the combination of things,” he said.

What now

Raul and Brisenia
Flores

On July 1, Gaxiola, 44, was found guilty on two counts of first-degree murder in the shooting deaths of Flores and his daughter, as well as six other charges including attempted first-degree murder in connection with the wounding of surviving victim Gina Gonzalez. Asked if she had any thoughts on the verdict and a lack of a verdict Gonzalez declined. “No, I’m not interested,” she said, as she quickly left the courtroom.

Gonzalez, however, will be talking with Deputy County Attorneys Rick Unklesbay and Kellie Johnson in the near future to provide input regarding the jury’s inability to decide the penalty for the murder of her daughter, Brisenia. “We’re going to talk to her,” Unklesbay said.

The prosecutors will also consult colleagues regarding whether or not to withdraw their request for the death penalty. “We do a panel on all murder cases,” Unklesbay explained. “We’ll talk to everybody concerned and make a decision.”

West was unwilling to speculate as to how the prosecution will proceed. “That’s strictly up to them and I’d rather not comment,” he said.

Decision time

A hearing on whether the death request will be withdrawn on the count involving the murder of Brisenia is set for July 29 at 10 a.m. If the death request is withdrawn then Leonardo will have the option of sentencing Gaxiola to natural life or whether he will have an opportunity to apply for a parole hearing after he has served 35 calendar years in prison. The 35-year threshold applies in Brisenia’s case because she was younger than 15-years-old.

A sentencing hearing has been set for Aug. 15 at 10:30 a.m. on the other six counts for which Gaxiola was convicted, as well as the murder count for which he will receive life in prison. It is up to Leonardo to determine if Gaxiola will be sentenced to natural life or whether he will have an opportunity to apply for a parole hearing after he has served 25 calendar years in prison.

No new neighbors

Already on death row in this case is co-defendant Shawna Forde, 43, the founder of the splinter group Minuteman American Defense. Testimony from prosecution witnesses in her trial earlier this year painted Forde as a wannabe black ops leader who proposed to finance her Blackwater-type operations by raiding suspected drug cartel operations in and around Arivaca in southern Arizona. Testimony showed that Forde intended to take the drugs, guns and money found during those raids to finance her continuing operations. Flores was their first target. Besides two death sentences, Forde was sentenced to 65 years in prison on the six other counts.

Also on death row in this case is co-defendant Jason Eugene Bush, 34, director of field operations for Minuteman American Defense, who during a post-arrest interview told detectives that it was his understanding that no one at the Flores home would be harmed. Bush also told detectives that he and Forde had entered the Flores home first because Gaxiola was concerned that he would be recognized. And, Bush told detectives that he was told their mission was to rip off marijuana and money owned by Raul Flores. Besides the two death sentences, Bush was given and additional 78 years in prison regarding the six other counts.

Gaxiola’s role

Testimony in this trial showed that Gaxiola, a longtime drug smuggler in the Arivaca area, was an intelligence resource for Forde and Bush who were seeking drugs and money to fund her minuteman operations and to provide living expenses. At the same time, the death of Flores eliminated competition in local drug smuggling activities for Gaxiola and his longtime business partner, Oin Oakstar. In exchange for a favorable plea agreement, Oakstar testified for the prosecution in all three trials.

Of the three defendants, Gaxiola was the only one that chose to make a statement either through testimony or in the form of allocution. The statement by Gaxiola was unsworn and not subject to cross-examination. “Flores Family. Gonzalez Family. There’s nothing that I can do or say that can relieve the pain and suffering from the loss of a loving husband or the loss of a precious daughter. All I can say is that I am truly sorry.”

Gaxiola’s fate remains in the hands of the jury

2011-07-14T17:33:00.000-07:00

Albert Gaxiola
(pool photo by Jill
Torrance/Arizona
Daily Star)

The Pima County Superior Court jury that will decide if former Arivaca resident Albert Robert Gaxiola spends the rest of his life in prison or is executed by lethal injection began deliberating that issue on Thursday morning..

On July 1, Gaxiola, 44, was found guilty on two counts of first-degree murder in the shooting deaths of Raul “Junior” Flores and his daughter Brisenia, as well as six other charges. Earlier this year, Jason Eugene Bush and Shawna Forde were found guilty on the same charges in separate trials. They both ended up with death sentences imposed by the juries hearing the evidence of their crimes.

The jury deliberated for about seven hours on Thursday before retiring for the evening. The jury of seven males and five females is expected to resume deliberations at 9 a.m. on Friday morning.

Gaxiola’s fate is now in the hands of the jury

2011-07-13T19:41:00.001-07:00

Albert Gaxiola
(pool photo by Jill
Torrance/Arizona
Daily Star)

The Pima County Superior Court jury that will decide if former Arivaca resident Albert Robert Gaxiola spends the rest of his life in prison or is executed by lethal injection will begin deliberating that issue on Thursday morning..

Closing arguments

The jury was told, Thursday afternoon, that Gaxiola make some bad choices when he became involved with Forde and Bush and especially with his drug smuggling buddy Oin Oakstar. “Albert’s mistake is associating with these people,” said defense counsel Steven D. West.

West also suggested to the jury that they needed to carefully consider his client’s moral culpability in this situation. “What shaped his morality and value systems? How did he get here? How was he damaged?” he asked, rhetorically.

West suggested that the bottom line is that Gaxiola is far from being the worst of the worst. “Our society has reserved the death penalty for the worst of the worst. The people who you just don’t want to take a chance that they will ever get back out into society,” he said.

Moral culpability

Deputy County Attorney Rick Unklesbay admitted to the jury that the defense had proven that Gaxiola had endured a less than ideal childhood. “They’ve done that and I’m not going to suggest otherwise,” he said. “You get to decide what weight, how much weight any of these factors merits in light of the circumstances of the murders. More importantly, you get to decide is moral culpability in light of the circumstances of the murders what weight are you going to give to things that happened to this defendant when he was two, three or four in light of what he did when he was 42.”

Unklesbay pointed out that Gaxiola made some very fateful decisions two years ago that landed him in his current predicament. “At age 42, when he began making plans to do away with Junior Flores. At 42 years of age, he was making that hitless in his notebooks, When he was 42 years of age he met Shawna Forde and the two of them getting together bringing in Jason Bush to commit these crimes,” he told the jury. “That factors in, I would suggest to you, to the defendant’s moral culpability.”

Allocution

At the conclusion of the presentation of evidence in the penalty phase of the trial, the defendant is given the opportunity to allocate, which according to yourdictionary.com is “The procedure during sentencing when a judge gives a convicted defendant the opportunity to make a personal statement on his own behalf to mitigate the punishment that is about to be imposed.”

The statement by Gaxiola was unsworn and not subject to cross-examination. “Flores Family. Gonzalez Family. There’s nothing that I can do or say that can relieve the pain and suffering from the loss of a loving husband or the loss of a precious daughter. All I can say is that I am truly sorry.”

Defense counsel Jack L. Lansdale reiterated his client’s statements during final closing arguments to the jury. “He feels very bad about what happened to this family,” he said.

Lansdale asked the jury to do what it right when deciding the fate of his client. “We feel at the end of the day that when you evaluate all of the facts and circumstances you have the right to use that term mercy,” he said. “This is not an eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth situation. This is not a cold-blooded killer. This is not a worst of the worst situation.”

Gaxiola tells the Flores and Gonzalez families he is ‘truly sorry’

2011-07-13T18:08:00.001-07:00

Albert Gaxiola
(pool photo by
Mamta Popat/Arizona
Daily Star)

Former Arivaca resident Albert Robert Gaxiola told the victims of the May 30, 2009, home invasion in Arivaca that he was “truly sorry” for the deaths of Raul “Junior” Flores and his daughter, Brisenia.

On July 1, Gaxiola, 44, was found guilty on two counts of first-degree murder in the shooting deaths of Raul “Junior” Flores and his daughter Brisenia, as well as six other charges. Earlier this year, Bush and Forde were found guilty on the same charges in separate trials. They both ended up with death sentences imposed by the juries hearing the evidence of their crimes.

The statement by Gaxiola was unsworn and not subject to cross-examination. “Flores Family. Gonzalez Family. There’s nothing that I can do or say that can relieve the pain and suffering from the loss of a loving husband or the loss of a precious daughter. All I can say is that I am truly sorry.”

With that, the attorneys began closing arguments in the case.

Questions continue regarding methods used by expert witness

2011-07-13T12:53:00.000-07:00

Mark Cunningham

The Pima County Superior Court jury that will decide if former Arivaca resident Albert Robert Gaxiola spends the rest of his life in prison or is executed by lethal injection continued to hear testimony Wednesday morning regarding the negative factors in the defendant’s life that made him the person he is today.

On July 1, Gaxiola, 44, was found guilty on two counts of first-degree murder in the shooting deaths of Raul “Junior” Flores and his daughter Brisenia, as well as six other charges. Earlier this year, Bush and Forde were found guilty on the same charges in separate trials. They both ended up with death sentences imposed by the juries hearing the evidence of their crimes.

Cross-examination resumes

Deputy County Attorney Rick Unklesbay resumed cross-examination asking Cunningham to comment on how persons make the choice they make. “People are different in that they can make choices in their lives about who they want to be and what kind of life they’re going to live, isn’t that true doctor?” he asked.

“Yes and no,” Cunningham responded. “What happens is that the people who have these risk exposures a much greater percentage of those end up choosing badly.”

Unklesbay asked Cunningham about his work testifying around the country on behalf of defendants facing the death penalty. “In all of those cases I’ve been retained by the defense,” Cunningham said.

“You don’t get hired by the prosecution do you?” Unklesbay asked.

“No sir. The phone doesn’t ring,” Cunningham responded. “I would certainly provide this testimony if your office requested it.”

“Don’t wait by the phone,” Unklesbay responded.

“Yes sir,” Cunningham said.

The cost

Unklesbay asked Cunningham what he was being paid to provide his opinions in this case. “My fee is $300 per hour,” he responded.

“What is your fee in this particular case?” Unklesbay asked.

“Before I came here a couple of days ago I had about 50 hours into this case. I’ve been here two-and-a-half days in addition to that,” Cunningham testified.

“Is it accurate to say that your final bill is going to be somewhere between $25,000-$30,000?” Unklesbay asked.

“That’s a little high. I would expect it’s going to be in the low 20s,” Cunningham responded.

Scope

Unklesbay then reminded Cunningham and the jury that his scope of inquiry was somewhat limited. “Since you didn’t review the police reports and you didn’t read the witness statements in this case you do not know what choices Mr. Gaxiola made in completely this offense. Is that accurate sir?” he asked.

“The jury has found…” Cunningham started to answer.

“I’m not asking what the jury has found, sir, I’m asking…” Unklesbay interrupted.

“I’m going to object, your honor,” said defense counsel Steven D. West.

“Overruled. The witness will answer the question,” said Judge John S. Leonardo.

“You don’t know what choices Mr. Gaxiola made in this case because you didn’t review the case and you didn’t speak to him,” Unklesbay repeated.

“I don’t know because I wasn’t there. If I had been there and observed it then I would know. Beyond that I don’t know,” Cunningham responded.

“That’s all I have,” Unklesbay said.

In all, Cunningham testified a little over four hours starting Tuesday afternoon and ending on Wednesday morning.

Gaxiola jury hears from psychologist who has never met the defendant

2011-07-12T19:38:00.001-07:00

The Pima County Superior Court jury that will decide if former Arivaca resident Albert Robert Gaxiola spends the rest of his life in prison or is executed by lethal injection heard testimony Tuesday afternoon regarding the negative factors in the defendant’s life that made him the person he is today.

On July 1, Gaxiola, 44, was found guilty on two counts of first-degree murder in the shooting deaths of Raul “Junior” Flores and his daughter Brisenia, as well as six other charges. Earlier this year, Bush and Forde were found guilty on the same charges in separate trials. They both ended up with death sentences imposed by the juries hearing the evidence of their crimes.

The science explained

Mark Cunningham

Mark D. Cunningham, Ph.D., is a board certified clinical and forensic psychologist from Dallas, Tex. Cunningham was hired by the defense to review Gaxiola’s life to this point with an eye towards explaining how he came to be convicted of two counts of first-degree murder and is facing the death penalty. “He’s 42 when this offense occurs. Isn’t that kind of late in the day to be talking about things that happened to you, particularly in your first four years of life,” Cunningham said.

Cunningham testified that the U.S. Department of Justice has recognized that early childhood factors do make a difference. “The influence of family environment on a child’s social development lasts a lifetime. You are building the person that’s going to be present from here on,” he testified.

Mom’s influence

Cunningham was asked about the influence of Gaxiola’s mother, Sandra. “There is her partying with her children. This includes when they’re teenagers. She’s smoking weed with them when they join her in Arizona. She was using cocaine, drinking smoking weed,” he testified. “Sonia (Muniz, Gaxiola’s sister) talked about how Sandra enlisted her side-by-side in the drug business. There was no sense of okay I’m in this life, but I don’t want my children there. Instead, she is actively incorporating them and making them a part of this.”

Sandra Gaxiola
Sanchez

Cunningham related an incident involving Sandra and her son where he was asked to provide armed support. “She goes into what is potentially a drug deal that is going to go bad, gives him a gun and tells him that if I’m not out in several minutes you come in guns blazing,” he testified. “She came out of the house all smiles and said that everything was fine and that I’m going to party with these guys and you can go on.”

Cross-examination

During cross-examination, Deputy County Attorney Rick Unklesbay asked Cunningham if he sat down with the defendant about his life and the various turns he took while growing up. “I virtually never ask that of a defendant,” Cunningham testified.

“So, you rely on folks that haven’t seen him much in the course of his life, like Sandra who abandoned him at age two and you relied on his father who has seen him twice in his life? You relied on folks that were not around during the course of the commission of this offense to find out what impact Mr. Gaxiola’s past life had on his choices in this case?” Unklesbay asked.

“That’s not correct. I used those individuals to identify the history of damaging factors that were present in his background. Then I used the research to make a connection between those factors and the kinds of behaviors he exhibited in adulthood, including this offense,” Cunningham relied.

“My question is, I think you answered it, my question is not once did you sit down with Mr. Gaxiola and ask him anything about what affect his prior life had on him making choices in May 2009?” Unklesbay asked. “That’s correct,” Cunningham replied. “Not once did you do that?” Unklesbay clarified. “That’s correct,” Cunningham replied, again.

Unklesbay also pointed out that Cunningham had not met Gaxiola until his testimony in court on Tuesday afternoon.

Other resources

Unklesbay also pointed out that Cunningham had not read any police reports, witness statements or other documents related to the deadly home invasion. “I requested of the defense to provide a basic description of what transpired,” he testified.

“From that you have told this jury over the last three hours how it is that you believe Mr. Gaxiola came to make choices at age 42 that put him in the seat that he’s in right now?” Unklesbay asked. “That’s correct,” Cunningham replied.

Testimony by Cunningham is set to resume at 10:30 a.m. on Wednesday.

Gaxiola jury hears evidence of other alleged crimes by Forde and Bush

2011-07-12T19:36:00.000-07:00

The Pima County Superior Court jury that will decide if former Arivaca resident Albert Robert Gaxiola spends the rest of his life in prison or is executed by lethal injection heard evidence Tuesday morning of other alleged crimes committed by co-defendants Jason Eugene Bush and Shawna Forde.

On July 1, Gaxiola, 44, was found guilty on two counts of first-degree murder in the shooting deaths of Raul “Junior” Flores and his daughter Brisenia, as well as six other charges. Earlier this year, Bush and Forde were found guilty on the same charges in separate trials. They both ended up with death sentences imposed by the juries hearing the evidence of their crimes.

California dreaming

Pima County Sheriff’s Department Det. Juan Carlos Navarro was called back to the witness stand by the defense to answer questions regarding an armed robbery/home invasion and a burglary theta took place in Redding Lake and Shasta Lake, Calif., shortly after the fatal home invasion in Arivaca.

Navarro confirmed that Forde and Bush stayed at the Alamo Motel in Cottonwood, Calif., June 6-9, 2009. He also confirmed that an armed robbery took place on June 8, 2009, at the home of a neighbor of Rena Caudle, the biological mother of Shawna Forde. “It was a home invasion where two individuals broke into the house and eventually stole $12,000,” said Navarro.

Navarro testified that one of the suspects had a U.S. Marshal Service badge and the victims later identified that suspect as Bush. Also, a badge for the U.S. Marshal Service was taken into evidence among the property found in the possession of Bush.

Navarro also confirmed there was a burglary at the home of Meryl Metzger, Forde’s half-brother, where a safe was stolen. Navarro testified there was evidence that Forde and Bush had asked to borrow a crowbar from the staff at the Alamo Hotel for the purpose of opening a safe.

Navarro learned that during an April 2009 visit to Caudle in Redding, Calif., the neighbor who was later robbed was visiting and in Forde’s presence mentioned a recent inheritance that she intended to keep at home. The day after the Arivaca murders Forde contacted Caudle for the address of her neighbor, who was robbed soon thereafter.

On cross-examination, Navarro testified that no arrest warrants had been issued for the arrests of either Bush or Forde in connection with those incidents.

Washington cold cases

Navarro was also asked to testify about a pair of homicides that may have been committed by Bush in 1997 in the Wenatchee, Wash. area.

The alleged murders committed on July 24, 1997 and Sept. 21, 1997, were the subject of litigation during the Bush trial. A motion by defense counsel stated that the murders of Hector Lopez and Jon Bumstead “will simply turn this case into the trial of a serial killer who has never had the opportunity to defend against allegations arising from murders which occurred 14 years ago. To do so would be breathtakingly prejudicial and distracting to the jury.”

According to reports from Washington, on July 24, 1997, Hector Lopez Partida, a transient, is found stabbed in a parking lot on South Wenatchee Avenue. He died later at Central Washington Hospital. No suspects were found, but police found a discarded shirt within 100 yards of where Lopez was attacked. Blood on the shirt reportedly belonged to Lopez.

On Sept. 21, 1997, the body of Jon Bumstead, 19, of East Wenatchee, was found in a remote area of Douglas County near Palisades. Bumstead had been shot twice with a rifle and killed. No arrests were made.

In January 2009, a state lab in Washington found DNA belonging to Bush on the discarded shirt found near the Lopez murder.

On June 12, 2009, Bush was charged in Chelan County Superior Court with second-degree murder in the death of Lopez. Also in June of 2009, a confidential informant, working with Wenatchee police on the Lopez murder, told law enforcement officers that Bush, who had been friends with Bumstead, had killed Bumstead. Later in June 2009, Bush, in an interview with Wenatchee Police Sgt. John Kruse, denied killing Lopez or Bumstead.

On July 31, 2009, Bush was charged in Douglas County Superior Court with first-degree murder in connection with the Bumstead murder. Bond was set at $1 million. While a request for extradition was made, there was been no execution of a governor’s warrant that would allow for Bush to be transferred to Douglas County Superior Court to stand trial.

Gaxiola’s role

Navarro also testified regarding his interview with Bush in Kingman shortly after his arrest. During that interview, Bush told Navarro that it was Gaxiola’s orders that forced him inside the Flores home where he shot and killed Junior Flores and his daughter, Brisenia, using a .45 cal. automatic supplied by Gaxiola. Bush also told Navarro that after he had been shot in the exchange of gunfire with Gonzalez that Gaxiola had been the one who took a final shot through the front door with what appeared to be a shotgun.

Did Gaxiola’s father tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth?

2011-07-09T09:06:00.001-07:00

The Pima County Superior Court jury that will decide if former Arivaca resident Albert Robert Gaxiola spends the rest of his life in prison or is executed by lethal injection heard from the defendant’s estranged father Friday morning.

Robert Gaxiola, 65, was born in Hollister, Calif., and currently lives and works in that community. He testified that he met his son’s mother, Sandra, in Fresno, Calif., in 1965 when he was 19-years-old.

Robert Gaxiola

Gaxiola was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1967 when his son, Albert, was about a year old. He avoided service in Vietnam, but he was stationed in Germany until he was called home due to a medical emergency involving Sandra and an unborn child he discovered was not his. The story regarding his testimony, including claims of escaping twice from an army stockade can be found here: http://rickersradarscreen.blogspot.com/2011/07/gaxiolas-father-attempted-to-kidnap-him.html

On Dec. 14, 2007, The Weekend Pinnacle Online published a story (http://www.pinnaclenews.com/news/contentview.asp?c=231661) about Gaxiola and his work at the homeless shelter in the Hollister community. In the article, Gaxiola stated that he went to Vietnam in 1967. The article also implies that the gunshot wound he received to his chin was received in Vietnam.

Gaxiola also testified that over the years, has been wounded during the troubles he has been involved in. “I was shot once and stabbed 12 times. I had my head busted I don’t know how many times,” he testified. Something he didn’t testify about is an apparent criminal record involving sex crimes. Information in that regard can be found here: http://www.homefacts.com/offender-detail/CA1869408314394/Roberto-Alberto-Gaxiola.html

Victim impact statement by Gina Gonzalez

2011-07-08T15:16:00.005-07:00

Raul & Brisenia
Flores

At the start of the penalty phase in the trial for former Arivaca resident Albert Robert Gaxiola the Pima County Superior Court jury that is charged with deciding if the defendant spends the rest of his life in prison or will be executed by lethal injection heard from the surviving victim in the case, Gina Gonzalez.

On July 1, Gaxiola, 44, was found guilty on two counts of first-degree murder in the shooting deaths of Raul “Junior” Flores and his daughter Brisenia, as well as six other charges. Earlier this year, Jason Eugene Bush and Shawna Forde were found guilty on the same charges in separate trials. They both ended up with death sentences imposed by the juries hearing the evidence of their crimes.

Gonzalez is a very soft-spoken person so not all of her words could be heard from the back of the courtroom, thus she graciously provided a copy of the statement she read to the jury. It is reproduced below.

Gina Gonzalez

Dear Jurors,

I am so thankful and relieved you have taken the time to allow me to read my impact statement. As you can probably imagine, the murder of my husband and daughter on May 30, 2009, has changed my life forever.

I went to bed with my family as I normally would on any given night, not imagining I would never wake up from this never-ending nightmare.

The defendant and my family hung around together, we laughed, he played video games with my daughters, told them how beautiful they were, how well-behaved they were, how their hair always looked nice. The memory that sticks out most in my mind is when the defendant would throw Brisenia up in the air, catch her and make her laugh.

We were all friends. How could someone who loved my family plot their final destiny? How could someone who loved my family stand by and allow a child he made laugh be murdered?

Brisenia was a beautiful little girl. I can’t possibly understand what she could have done to deserve this. What could I have done to deserve this? What could my husband have done to deserve this? What did Alexandra, my oldest daughter, do to deserve the loss of her little sister, who was her best friend and her father, who she misses very much?

I am still in denial about the whole thing. I can’t believe someone I loved and trusted could have done something like this. For the longest time, I never thought the defendant would have been capable of doing something like this...almost wiping out my entire family.

It saddened me to know that Brisenia’s face had to be reconstructed for her funeral. It was very hard to see my child in the casket. It was also hard to see my husband in the casket. But it was more difficult to comprehend that I may know the person who did this to them. I continue to have a hard time re-directing my grieving for both my husband and daughter. It’s all so overwhelming!

Who put Junior’s name on the bullet and didn’t care what happened to my daughter and me?

The defendant knew my history with Junior. He knew we had been together since he was 15 years old. When my husband was murdered, we were two-and-a-half months short of being married 13 years. We had built our lives together and we were looking forward to growing old together. He had a great sense of humor, was a great cook and he loved his little girls very much.

It’s hard for me to understand how this all happened. I have so many questions that will remain unanswered. I just need to know “Why? Even though knowing why still wouldn’t be good enough. It still won’t bring them back.

My life is ruined. I now know that evil lives among us and it comes in many forms. It can even befriend you, gain your trust and kill your family.

Thank you for your time.

Gaxiola’s father attempted to kidnap him when he was a boy

2011-07-08T15:12:00.001-07:00

Albert Gaxiola
(pool photo by Benjie
Sanders/Arizona
Daily Star)

The Pima County Superior Court jury that will decide if former Arivaca resident Albert Robert Gaxiola spends the rest of his life in prison or is executed by lethal injection heard from the defendant’s estranged father Friday morning.

Dad

Robert Gaxiola, 65, was born in Hollister, Calif., and currently lives and works in that community. He testified that he met his son’s mother in Fresno, Calif., when he was 19-years-old. “Sonia was three-months old,” he said. The jury heard, Thursday, from Sonia Muniz.

Gaxiola was asked to describe Sandra Sanchez, the mother of his son, Albert Gaxiola. “To put it bluntly, she as a liar, a cheat and you could trust her,” he testified.

Gaxiola was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1967 when his son was about a year old. He avoided service in Vietnam, but he was stationed in Germany for a while. Gaxiola received word through the Red Cross that he needed to head to Portland, Ore. due to a medical emergency involving Sandra. “They said my wife was pregnant and she had gonorrhea, the gonorrhea was hitting the baby and that she needed an abortion and they needed my signature for the abortion,” he testified.

It didn’t take Gaxiola long to figure out that the child in question was not his. “On the plane I did the math. I had been in Germany for six months and she was almost five months pregnant,” he testified. “I ended up not going to Portland.”

Robert Gaxiola

AWOL

Instead, Gaxiola got off the plane in San Jose went absent without leave (AWOL) from the army. “I started drinking and did some drugs,” he said.

Gaxiola got into a fight with a number of people and was arrested. While in custody the military police took custody of him for being AWOL. He ended up initially in the stockade at Fort Ord, Calif. “I was there for about three days and then I escaped,” he testified. “You escaped from an army stockade?” Lansdale asked. “Yes, I did,” Gaxiola replied. “I escaped twice.”

When his son, Albert, was about two-years-old, Gaxiola made contact with his former wife who was living in Fresno at the time. He was not allowed to visit with his children. “She talked to me through a cracked door,” he said.

Kidnap

Eventually, Gaxiola discovered that his children were living with Tony and Sylvia Loera who allowed him to visit. Gaxiola took his two sons, Albert and Kevin, and his stepdaughter, Sonia, to the zoo. Gaxiola returned Sonia and Kevin to the Loeras, but he kidnapped Albert, taking him to his home in San Jose. “They called the cops on me,” he said.

Life took unfortunate turns for Gaxiola after the failed kidnapping attempt. “I started using heroin,” he testified.

Gaxiola was charged over the years with “two assaults and two possessions” doing some time in prison. “I’m a third striker,” he said.

Gaxiola was acquitted on an assault charge that arose out of a fight in bar. He was found guilty on drug possession charges thus he faced a sentence of life in prison with the opportunity to apply for parole after serving 25 years, but the judge sentenced him to time served less three days. “He sent me to San Quentin for three days,” he testified.

Over the years, Gaxiola has been wounded during the trouble he has been a part of. “I was shot once and stabbed 12 times. I had my head busted I don’t know how many times,” he testified. He said he stopped using heroin in 1994 and has been clean for almost 17 years.

Reunion

Gaxiola testified that he had lost contact with his son over the years. “I had no idea where he was,” he said.

Gaxiola said investigators working on his son’s behalf found him and asked that he testify. Before that Gaxiola came to Tucson to meet with his son at the Pima County Adult Detention Center. “I came in January and had a visit,” he said.

When asked what his son’s execution would mean Gaxiola broke down. “I just found him. I don’t want to lose him,” he said, through a choking voice.

Prior to the afternoon session of court, Gaxiola was observed sitting on a bench in the courthouse hallway speaking with the surviving victim in the case, Gina Gonzalez. It appeared that they had a pleasant conversation although her parents appeared to be uneasy regarding the encounter.

Gaxiola’s former attorney describes him as a ‘Rhodes Scholar’

2011-07-08T12:17:00.005-07:00

Albert Gaxiola
(pool photo by Benjie
Sanders/Arizona Daily
Star)

A Tucson attorney who previously represented former Arivaca resident Albert Robert Gaxiola told the Pima County Superior Court jury that will decide if he spends the rest of his life in prison or is executed by lethal injection that he was a good client to represent.

Last Friday, Gaxiola, 44, was found guilty on two counts of first-degree murder in the shooting deaths of Raul “Junior” Flores and his daughter Brisenia, as well as six other charges. Earlier this year, Jason Eugene Bush and Shawna Forde were found guilty on the same charges in separate trials. They both ended up with death sentences imposed by the juries hearing the evidence of their crimes.

Thomas Reed, Esq. has been an attorney in Arizona since 1974. He has worked as a prosecutor, but mostly as a criminal defense attorney.

One of the reasons Reed considered Gaxiola to be a good client is that he paid his bill. “I don’t remember how much he paid me, but I know he paid me because I remember every single guy who hasn’t paid me,” he said.

Reed also described Gaxiola as more intelligent than the average client. “In this particular job I have you don’t run into a lot of Rhodes Scholars in your clientele. You run into a lot of people who are totally unlike you,” he said. Rhodes Scholar recipients study at Oxford University, in England, for one to two years, but some people refer to persons who appear to be more intelligent than others as Rhodes Scholars.

Gaxiola in Pima County Superior Court retained Reed on case CR-33196, which included the charges conspiracy to sell marijuana and unlawful transportation of marijuana for sale. “I recall that I recommended that he take the plea,” Reed testified. “The client makes that decision and I do my best to advise them.”

Gaxiola entered into a favorable plea agreement where probation was available and later withdrew from the plea so the case was set for trial. When the trial came Gaxiola failed to show up and was tried and convicted in absentia. At the sentencing hearing, Judge William Scholl gave Gaxiola an aggravated sentence in prison. “He gave him 10 years. He went over the presumptive and Albert was a minor player,” Reed asserted.

Yesterday, Gaxiola’s sister, Sonia Muniz, was asked during cross-examination whether the Sandy Sanchez who was indicted in this same case was Gaxiola’s mother and she testified that it was. After the jury was sent home for the evening defense counsel chastised the prosecution for making an error in asking the question, as the Sandy Sanchez on the indictment was a cousin not his mother. Reed was asked if he remembered if the co-defendant Sandy Sanchez was his client’s mother. “I don’t remember Sandy Sanchez,” he testified. “I hate having family cases.”

Reed was asked on cross-examination by Deputy County Attorney Rick Unklesbay to explain how Gaxiola had come to be indicted in that case. “The police provided the pot and he drove the vehicle,” he said.

Unklesbay asked for clarification as to Reed’s statement that Gaxiola had played a minor role. “Obviously, Judge Scholl disagreed with that because he gave him an aggravated sentence,” Unklesbay said. “Objection, calls for speculation,” said Lansdale. “Absolutely true judge,” Reed interjected. “Overruled,” said Leonardo. “You’ve never done a sentencing with Judge Scholl,” Reed said. “I’ve done many of them,” Unklesbay said. “On the other table though,” Reed replied, as the jury and spectators chuckled.

Gaxiola’s sister testifies about their upbringing

2011-07-07T20:22:00.001-07:00

Albert Gaxiola
(pool photo by Jill
Torrance/Arizona
Daily Star)

The Pima County Superior Court jury that is charged with deciding if former Arivaca resident Albert Robert Gaxiola will spend the rest of his life in prison or be executed by lethal injection was told, Thursday, about how Gaxiola and his siblings were raised by relations in California.

Sister Sonia

Sonia Muniz is an administrative assistant to the manager of the Pacific Southern Region for Kinder Morgan, which owns or operates more than 37,000 miles of pipelines and 180 terminals in North America.

The natural parents for Muniz are Sandra Sanchez Gaxiola and Richard Vera. “I always knew what my biological father’s name was but never had the opportunity to meet him,” she testified.

Then, a cousin pulled out a picture album of her mother’s wedding and asked if she would like to see a picture of her father. “That’s where they met. Both of them were in the picture,” Muniz testified. “I opened the white pages of the phone book and looked up Vera.”

A couple of phone call later she was in contact with her biological father “I had to sneak, but I made a visit to see him,” Muniz added.

Surrogate parents

Muniz normally refers to Tony and Sylvia Loera as her parents as they raised her and her brothers. Muniz broke down when asked about Sylvia Loera as she passed away two months ago. Her brother Kevin, who passed away from complications related to HIV/Aids, had lived with the Loeras since he was an infant.

The Loeras took in Muniz and Gaxiola when she was three and Gaxiola was two. Their mother’s boyfriend was physically abusive to their mother and to Gaxiola. After their mother’s boyfriend abandoned them they stay with their grandparents in Oregon.

Their mother ended up in the hospital and their grandmother was ready to raised Muniz and Gaxiola, but their grandfather said no. That’s when they were taken in by the Loeras and moved to southern California. Eventually, their grandparents were divorced.

The high life

Two weeks after graduation from high school, Muniz was employed as a receptionist for a beauty supply house. After a year in that job Muniz took her one-week paid vacation and traveled to Arivaca to visit her biological mother and grandfather. “It was a party environment. It was an environment I hadn’t been introduced to,” she testified.

Muniz said the first thing that caught her eye was money. “I had been working at Fresno Beauty supply for minimum wage,” she admitted. “I was introduced to drugs at that time and I met my first daughter’s father out here.”

Her biological mother supplied her with cocaine and marijuana. “She was selling drugs,” Muniz testified.

Muniz admitted she started thinking about her ho-hum life back in Fresno as compared to Arizona. “It seemed like it was a lot easier than going to work every day,” she admitted.

Her mother offered her a place to live so Muniz gave her notice at her job in Fresno and moved to Arizona. “It was a different lifestyle. The attraction was, for one, a man. For two, there was money,” she said.

Muniz said her drug of choice was white powder. “I’ll be honest, cocaine is a rough drug,” she said. “You can easily start to enjoy it.”

Cross-examination

During cross-examination, Muniz was asked about the involvement of her biological mother in the case, which sent Gaxiola to prison a few years ago. “When he did go to prison Sandra was involved in that case as well. Was she not?” asked Deputy County Attorney Kellie Johnson. “I believe she was,” Muniz answered.

After the jury had left, defense counsel Steven D. West complained to Judge John S. Leonardo than Johnson had her facts wrong. West said the Sandra Sanchez involved in the case that sent Gaxiola rto prison was his cousin not his mother.

West suggested that Johnson’s question had been prejudicial. Johnson replied that it couldn’t have been prejudicial since the defense was painting a picture of Gaxiola’s mother that was less than positive. Johnson also pointed out that Muniz had answered the question and West had failed to correct the error on redirect examination.

Gaxiola juror observed sleeping during testimony

2011-07-07T18:42:00.000-07:00

One member of the Pima County Superior Court jury that is charged with deciding if former Arivaca resident Albert Robert Gaxiola will spend the rest of his life in prison or be executed by lethal injection was observed, Thursday, dozing off during testimony.

After the jury was sent to lunch, defense counsel Steven D. West raised the issue of the sleeping juror number four. “One time, I observed juror number five wake him up because he was sleeping,” West said. “We can’t have a juror not paying attention in the courtroom.”

“I agree,” said Judge John S. Leonardo. “I haven’t observed that.”

“I’ve been watching the jury,” Deputy County Attorney Rick Unklesbay said. “I have not once seen any jurors in the position that Mr. West is describing.”

Unklesbay said he had been watching that juror during previous testimony in the trial. “That juror, in particular, in the past has paid particular attention,” he said. “He’s had some facial reactions at times.”

After lunch, the same juror was observed apparently sleeping. One observer in the courtroom said the juror almost fell off of his chair in the juror box. As the jury was leaving the courtroom for the afternoon break, Leonardo summoned juror number four to a bench conference with the attorneys. The juror was still in the box after the break and listened to testimony until the evening recess.

Albert Gaxiola, the person, not the convicted killer

2011-07-07T17:55:00.000-07:00

The Pima County Superior Court jury that will decide whether former Arivaca resident Albert Robert Gaxiola spends the rest of his life in prison or is executed by lethal injection was provided a snapshot, Thursday, of the person.

Albert Gaxiola
(pool photo by Jill
Torrance/Arizona
Daily Star)

Forensic psychologist

Dr. Gary Perrin, a forensic psychologist hired by the defense to evaluate the defendant reviewed a number of reports and conducted tests, as well as a clinical interview with Gaxiola.

Perrin was asked about his clinical interview with Gaxiola. “He stated that he enjoys life, is not angry, avoids situations where other people are angry,” he testified. “He acknowledged being ‘a little anxious’ after he was first arrested in this present case, but he said he became less anxious after learning more about his own case and developed a routine being in the jail.”

Gaxiola told Perrin that he had used alcohol in high school and all types of drugs over the years. “He stated that marijuana was his drug of choice, that he liked using it and that he was using marijuana daily at the time of his arrest,” he testified. “He said marijuana ‘gave me energy’ and a ‘bigger smile.’”

Perrin said Gaxiola told him he had periodically used methamphetamine and cocaine, but did not like crack cocaine. Gaxiola also told Perrin that had used LSD four or five times and he also had used hallucinogenic mushrooms. “He said that his use of cocaine ‘got out of hand’ in that he was using it daily for a period of time,” he testified.

Early abuse

Gaxiola told Perrin that he had only one contact during his life with his biological father. “He described that his mother had boyfriends who were very abusive of her physically and that was distressing,” he testified. “He described that one of her boyfriends, when Mr. Gaxiola was about four, had him stand on the bed, punched him in the abdomen and made him eat chili peppers. Mr. Gaxiola said he didn’t know why he made him do those things.”

After that, Gaxiola went to live with his aunt and uncle in California, which he described to Perrin as a “Beaver Clever” lifestyle. Eventually, Gaxiola moved to southern Arizona to be near his mother and grandparents. “He said he lived with his grandfather for about six months then he obtained his own residence,” Perrin testified.

Family business

Gaxiola told Perrin that drug trafficking was a family business. “He said his grandfather and his mother brought him into the drug sales business,” he testified. “He said his mother was ‘like a boss’ and ‘guided me’ in the drug business. He described his grandmother as ‘God-fearing’ and that she was not part of the drug business.”

On cross-examination, Deputy County Attorney Rick Unklesbay asked Perrin to confirm that Gaxiola’s intelligence quotient (IQ) had been measured as 112, which places him in the high average range with no intellectual functioning impairment. Unklesbay asked is Gaxiola was capable of holding a job. “Dependent upon the type of job, generally he has the abilities to hold down a job if he is not using drugs or involved in some type of illegal activity related to drugs that would cause him to be arrested,” Perrin testified.

Prosecution plans to use Bush confession to show the true role played by Gaxiola

2011-07-07T12:33:00.001-07:00

Rick Unklesbay

The Pima County Superior Court jury that will decide if former Arivaca resident Albert Robert Gaxiola pends the rest of his life in prison or is put to death by lethal injection that the prosecution plans to share the confession by codefendant Jason Eugene Bush in which he characterizes the role played by the defendant in this case.

State’s opening statement

Deputy County Attorney Rick Unklesbay reminded the jury that their roles in the penalty phase of the trial are a bit different than they were during the first two phases. “Ultimately, what the entire jury has to do is decide whether or not there are any mitigating factors sufficiently substantial to call for leniency,” he said. “You may find that some mitigation is proven to you, but then it’s up to you to decide what weight to give to that particular mitigating factor and whether or not it is sufficiently substantial by itself or in combination with other mitigation to call for leniency.”

Defense counsel Steven D. West had told the jury, Wednesday, that his client plans to allocate to the jury at the conclusion of testimony in the penalty phase. “He does that much like Ms. Gonzalez did yesterday,” Unklesbay explained. “It’s not testimony subject to examination. It’s a statement he gets to give to you.”

Unklesbay suggested that this will be the jury’s chance to weigh any expressions of remorse against the sentiments found in text messages exchanged between Gaxiola and co-defendant Forde just hours after the murders. “Mr. West suggested that Albert Gaxiola will get up at the end of this phase and express his remorse over what happened,” he said. “What you get to consider at the same time are the text messages presented to you in phase one.”

Sweet dreams

During closing arguments in the first phase of the trial Unklesbay reminded the jury about the text message sent by Gaxiola read “Sweet dreams.” Unklesbay paused for a moment. “They had just killed a 9-year-old. They had just killed her father. They had just wounded Gina,” he said. “And, Albert Gaxiola’s text message back to Shawna Forde was ‘Sweet dreams.’ Shawna Forde’s reply was: ‘You’re one of my minutemen.’”

For a moment, Unklesbay found himself at a loss for words during his closing argument. “I’m not sure what words can adequately characterize the actions of these people,” he said. “This is beyond outrageous. This is just downright scary.”

Minor role?

As the defense position that Gaxiola played a minor role, Unklesbay told the jury they should be skeptical. “As you heard, the other two folks in this case are sitting on death row,” he said. “You will hear Det. Navarro’s interview with Mr. Bush after his arrest in June 2009.”

Holding a transcript of the interview, Unklesbay pointed to a question asked of Bush about what happened inside the Flores home. “Mr. Bush responded ‘I thought we were going to be outside. When Alberto got back around 10 that was when he’s like okay you guys are going to have to go inside. I was not really prepared for going inside,’” he read.

Later in the detective interview, Bush was asked if Gaxiola said why they would have to go inside. “Bush said ‘no. He just said the stuff’s inside,’” Unklesbay read.

In his interview with Navarro, Bush said the original plan called for Gaxiola and Oakstar to speak with Flores, but that when Oakstar failed to show up that plans changed. “Bush told Det. Navarro ‘I had the .45 that he gave me,’” Unklesbay read. Investigators never recovered that weapon.

Unklesbay told the jury that Navarro had asked Bush when he was told that members of the Flores family would need to be killed. “When did you get that order to shoot everybody in the house? ‘Right there by the door.’ Who gave the order? ‘Alberto,’” he read. “Question, what did he tell you? Answer ‘You’re going to have to shoot this guy.’ Why, because he knew who he was.”

Inconsistent arguments

Finally, Unklesbay pointed out to the jury an inconsistency in the defense arguments. “The defense wants to present to you that first of all he wasn’t present. Now, they want to present to you that he had a minor role,” he said. “Make no mistake about it, there is no minor participation on the part of Mr. Gaxiola.”

Gaxiola is not the worst of the worst that needs to be put down like a dog

2011-07-06T19:56:00.000-07:00

Albert Gaxiola
(pool photo by Benjie
Sanders/Arizona Daily
Star)

The Pima County Superior Court jury deciding whether for Arivaca resident Albert Robert Gaxiola should spend the rest of his life in prison or be executed by lethal injection was told, Wednesday afternoon, that he is not the worst of the worst that needs to be put down like a dog.

Let’s move on

In the third phase of the trial, known by some as the mitigation phase and by others as the penalty phase, the burden of proof lies with the defense, not with the prosecution. “We call this the penalty phase,” said defense counsel Steven D. West.

West told the jury during opening statements that they would not be presented evidence designed to make the crimes to appear less serious than they were. “Mitigation is not an excuse,” he said.

West told the jury that they also would not be asked to reconsider evidence they heard earlier in the trial. “Albert has been found guilty. He accepts that without question,” he stated. “Now, you’re going to have to be judges who decide his sentence.”

Preponderance of the evidence

West explained that the burden of proof is not longer beyond a reasonable doubt, but by a preponderance of the evidence. “That means you put on evidence that says more likely than not that’s true,” he explained. “Once a factor has been proven by a preponderance of the evidence that factor must be considered by each of you.”

West used the animal cruelty case for NFL quarterback Michael Vick as an example. He talked about how many of the dogs recovered in that case had to be destroyed because their behavior was so ingrained that thy could not be reintroduced into society. “They evaluated those dogs and they put to sleep the worst of the worst,” he pointed out. “You have to decide after this presentation as to whether or not Albert is one of the worst of the worst and needs to be put to death. Or, is there something about him that you are going to learn about that will persuade you otherwise.”

West told the jury that the rules of evidence are different in the penalty phase from what they observed during the first two phases of the trial. “There’s a lot of stuff that you couldn’t know during the trial,” he said. “You’ve got to know the rest of the story.”

Defense game plan

Besides members of the Gaxiola family, the defense plans to call professionals to the witness stand who have evaluated the defendant. There are also plans to tell the jury about the roles played by defendant’s Forde and Bush.

In the end, West told the jury that he is confident that they will have a full picture of Albert Gaxiola. “He’s not somebody that has to be put down because he’s the worst of the worst,” he said. “He made bad choices. There’s no doubt about that.”

At the conclusion of West’s remarks, court recessed for the evening. The state will be provided an opportunity to make an opening statement when the trial resumes at 10:30 a.m. Thursday morning.

Surviving victim tells jury of the impact on her life

2011-07-06T19:04:00.000-07:00

Raul & Brisenia Flores

The Pima County Superior Court jury that will decide if former Arivaca resident Albert Robert Gaxiola spends the rest of his life in prison or is executed by lethal injection were told, Wednesday, about the impact the deaths of Raul “Junior” Flores and his daughter, Brisenia, had on the lone surviving victim of the May 30, 2009, home invasion.

Last Friday, Gaxiola, 44, was found guilty on two counts of first-degree murder and six other charges. Earlier this year, Jason Eugene Bush and Shawna Forde were found guilty on the same charges in separate trials. They both ended up with death sentences imposed by the juries hearing the evidence of their crimes.

Eligible

Earlier in the day, the jury had found Gaxiola was eligible to receive the death penalty for the two courts of first-degree murder. At the start of the penalty phase of the trial proceedings victims are afforded an opportunity to make a verbal statement to the jury regarding the impact the crime has had on them.

Gina Gonzalez, who was wounded twice the night her husband and daughter were murdered told the jury that the events of that night had changed her life forever. “The defendant and my family hung out together,” she said. “He played video games with my daughters, he told them how beautiful they were and how well behaved they were. The memory that most sticks out in my mind was when the defendant would throw Brisenia up in the air, catch her, make her laugh and we were all friends.”

Member of the family

Earlier in the trial, Gonzalez had testified that she considered Gaxiola to be family. Gonzalez said during cross-examination by the defense that a member of the Gaxiola family, Bernice is her Godmother, but they are not related by blood. “I was introduced to him in 2002 by my Godmother,” she testified. “I think that I met him, was reacquainted with him in 2007. His grandma had passed away and he had come down for that.”

Defense counsel also asked Gonzales if she considered Gaxiola to be part of her family. “Yes, I consider him to be a relative,” she admitted.

Another relative of Gaxiola is married to an uncle of Gonzalez. “How could someone who loves my family standby and allow a child to be murdered?” Gonzalez asked, rhetorically as she addressed the jury, Wednesday.

The victims

Gonzalez told the jury that her family was the victims in this situation. “I can’t possibly understand what she could have done to deserve this. What could I have done to deserve this? What could my husband have done to deserve this? What did Alexandra, my oldest daughter, do to deserve this?” she asked, rhetorically. “She lost her little sister who was her best friend and her father who she misses very much. I am still in denial about the whole thing. I can’t believe that someone I loved and trusted could have done this to my family.”

Gonzalez told the jury, Wednesday, that it took her a while to come to the realization that Gaxiola really had played a role in the deaths of her husband and daughter. “For the longest time I never thought that the defendant could have been capable of doing something like this,” she said.

Gonzalez shared with the jury the ordeal she went through at the funeral for her daughter, who had to have her face repaired by the funeral home, and husband. “It was very hard to see my child in her casket and it was also hard to see my husband in his casket,” she said.

Love of her life

Gonzalez told the jury that she and her husband was the love of her life and that they had been together since they were 15-years-old. “When my hubby was murdered we were two-and-a-half months short of being married 13 years,” she said. “We had built our lives together. We were looking forward to growing old together.”

Gonzalez said that after trials for three defendants involved in these murders she still has unanswered questions, especially when it comes to the role Gaxiola played. “It’s hard for me to understand how this all happened. I have so many questions that only he can answer. I just need to know why,” she said. “My life is ruined.”

Evil among us

The last words spoken by Gonzalez to the jury left an impression. “I now know that evil lives among us and comes in many forms. It can even befriend you, gain your trust and kill your family,” she said.

Gaxiola found to be eligible for the death penalty

2011-07-06T18:25:00.000-07:00

Albert Gaxiola
(pool photo by Jill
Torrance/Arizona
Daily Star)

A Pima County Superior Court jury has determined that former Arivaca resident Albert Robert Gaxiola is eligible to receive the death penalty for his role in the May 30, 2009, home invasion that left Raul “Junior” Flores and his daughter Brisenia dead from gunshot wounds.

Eligibility

Judge John S. Leonardo welcomed the jurors back to his courtroom, Wednesday morning, after a four-day break for the July 4^th holiday weekend. “This phase of the trial that we are starting today has no additional evidence. You have already heard all of the evidence,” he told the jury.

During arguments to the jury, Deputy County Attorney Kellie Johnson said the degree of participation is an important consideration. “What you will have to decide is whether or not he intended that the killing took place or whether he was a major participant in the felonies of burglary and robbery and acted with reckless indifference to human life,” she said. “In addition to what he did on May 30^th you can consider his planning, the things he did prior to May 30^th. Obviously, the evidence presented to you in that first phase shows to you beyond any doubt that he was a major participant in what happened at the Flores home on May 30, 2009.”

Johnson suggested that Gaxiola’s intent was clear. “I would submit to you that when you go over to a family’s home at one o’clock in the morning with the intent to take out your competition and you arm yourself and your accomplices arm themselves with guns, you proceed to force your way into a home and rob these people and kill Gina Gonzalez and obviously it ended up in the deaths of Raul and Brisenia there can be no question that his actions demonstrated a reckless indifference to human life,” she said.

Defense counsel Jack L. Lansdale told the jury that they would have a hard time determining whether or not his client was a major participant. “You have to determine as to each victim whether Albert intended for the killing to take place or whether he was a major participant in the burglary, robbery or both and was recklessly indifferent,” Lansdale said. “He could have engaged in the plan and then Bush went over there and killed somebody, in which case he would have intended that the killing of Raul take place, but he wouldn’t have intended that the killing of Brisenia take place.”

Lansdale told the jury that his client had no idea whatsoever that the home invasion and murders would take place. “There is no evidence whatsoever that there ever was any plan or intent on Albert’s part that he ever intended that to happen,” he said. “It is clear at the close of business on May 29^th, Oin, the state’s major witness, didn’t know anything about the home invasion. Somehow the plan changed, but there is no evidence of how the plan changed or why the plan changed or who came up with the idea to change the plan. There is no evidence that it became his idea to do that.”

Lansdale asked the jury to carefully consider the question before them. “I’m going to ask you to find that he was not a major participant in the burglary or the robbery or both and that he was not recklessly indifferent regarding a person’s life,” he said.

The verdicts read in court indicated that 11 members of the jury found that Gaxiola intended that a killing take place and 12 of the jurors found that Gaxiola was a major participant and recklessly indifferent with regard to the murders.

Aggravating factors

The jury was also asked to determine the existence of aggravating factors in regard to the murders. According to Arizona Revised Statute 13-751, a sentence of death may be imposed if just one of the aggravating circumstances that have been alleged is proven by evidence presented to the jury. In this case the state has alleged the following aggravating circumstances:

1. The defendant has been or was previously convicted of a serious offense, whether preparatory or completed. “In Arizona, when we say previously convicted that includes serious offenses on the same occasion as the homicides themselves,” Johnson said. “Here what we are talking about are the serious offenses that he has been convicted of, the armed robbery, first-degree burglary and attempted first-degree murder.”

2. The defendant has been convicted of one or more other homicides. “What you have to find is that these two homicides were related in time, space and motivation,” Johnson said. “There is no question that Raul and Brisenia Flores were murdered at the same time during this home invasion. They were murdered during the same series of events and that the motivation for those murders was the same.”

3. The defendant was an adult at the time the offense was committed or was tried as an adult and the murdered person was under 15 years of age. “The law requires that you give separate consideration in this phase to that type of question about the age of the victim,” Johnson said.

Before the attorneys argued their perspectives to the jury Leonardo read a stipulation stating that Gaxiola was older than 18 years of age at the time the murders he was convicted of last week took place. That information is important when the jury considers the aggravating factor alleged by the state in connection with the murder of Brisenia Flores.

The jurors also found that each of the aggravating factors alleged by the state had been proven beyond a reasonable doubt.

Gaxiola trial moves to the next phase on the road to a potential death penalty

2011-07-03T11:38:00.000-07:00

Albert Gaxiola
(pool photo by
Jill Torrance/
Arizona Daily Star)

The guilty verdicts in Pima County Superior Court last Friday for former Arivaca resident Albert Robert Gaxiola have been perceived by some to be the “end of a two-year roller coaster ride” for the community of Arivaca.

Perhaps a famous quote from a November 1942 speech by Prime Minister Winston Churchill is more illustrative of the situation. Churchill told the House of Commons and those listening on the radio: “Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.”

Gaxiola, 44, was found guilty on two counts of first-degree murder and six other charges in connection with the May 30, 2009, deaths of Raul “Junior” Flores and his daughter, Brisenia, 9. Earlier this year, Jason Eugene Bush and Shawna Forde were found guilty on the same charges in separate trials. They both ended up with death sentences imposed by the juries hearing the evidence of their crimes.

Aggravators

According to Arizona Revised Statute 13-751, a sentence of death may be imposed if just one of the aggravating circumstances that have been alleged against a defendant charged with first-degree murder is proven by evidence presented to the jury. In this case the state has alleged the following aggravating circumstances:

1. The defendant has been or was previously convicted of a serious offense, whether preparatory or completed.

2. The defendant committed the offense as consideration for the receipt, or in expectation of the receipt, of anything of pecuniary value.

3. The defendant has been convicted of one or more other homicides.

4. The defendant was an adult at the time the offense was committed or was tried as an adult and the murdered person was under 15 years of age.

During the trials for Forde and Bush, the attorneys simply presented arguments to the jury that the aggravating factors alleged had been proven during the presentation of evidence in the first phase of the trial. The juries in those trials returned, within minutes, verdicts that made those defendants eligible for the death penalty.

Potential schedule

After the guilty verdicts were returned last Friday, Judge John S. Leonardo asked counsel for the state and defense to project their expectations for the second and potential third phase of the proceedings so that he could give the jurors an idea of scheduling. “We do not have any additional evidence that we intend to present during the aggravation phase,” said Deputy County Attorney Kellie Johnson.

The defense has other plans for the second phase of the trial. “We had planned on possibly calling Det. (Juan Carlos) Navarro and possibly Det. (Jill) Murphy,” said defense counsel Jack L. Lansdale. “Primarily, that’s related to the pecuniary gain aggravator.”

Prior to the start of deliberations that led to the guilty verdicts, four of the 16 jurors that had been hearing evidence in the case were selected to be alternates. That’s because state law provides that only 12 jurors may engage in deliberations that lead to verdicts. Originally, seven males and nine females were seated to hear testimony. Prior to the start of deliberations late Thursday, four female jurors were designated as alternates.

Alternate jurors

The alternates were excused, but not released from service. In fact, the reading of the verdicts Friday afternoon was delayed in order to allow the four alternate jurors to be present in the rear of the courtroom. The four alternates will listen to the evidence presented in the second phase and if necessary the third phase of the trial. They will not be called upon to deliberate unless there is a problem that would prevent a member of the jury designated to deliberate was unable to continue.

It is anticipated that the defense will present evidence in the potential third phase starting sometime on Wednesday, July 6. The last witness anticipated by the defense during the potential third phase of the trial is expected to testify on Tuesday, July 12. The 12 deliberating jurors could get the case late on July 12. The verdicts they would consider are life in prison or death by lethal injection. The verdicts rendered by the jury are final and are not advisory. There is no time limit regarding the length of jury deliberations.

At the conclusion of the second and potential third phase, Judge Leonardo will set a sentencing date for the remaining six counts and for the two murder counts if the jury returns verdicts of life prison.

Finally, as with the Forde and Bush cases and for any case where the defendant is sentenced to death the case is automatically appealed to the Arizona Supreme Court.

Guilty verdicts on all charges in Gaxiola double murder trial

2011-07-01T16:52:00.003-07:00

Raul & Brisenia
Flores

The Pima County Superior Court jury hearing the double murder trial for former Arivaca resident Albert Robert Gaxiola has returned guilty verdicts on all charges. Deliberations took about five hours.

Gaxiola, 44, was found guilty of two counts of first-degree murder in the May 30, 2009, deaths of Raul “Junior” Flores and his daughter, Brisenia, 9. Gaxiola was also found guilty of the attempted first-degree murder of Gina Marie Gonzalez; one count of burglary in the first-degree; one count of aggravated assault, serious physical injury; one count of aggravated assault, deadly weapon/dangerous instrument; one count of armed robbery; and one count of aggravated armed robbery.

Both Forde and co-defendant Jason Eugene Bush have been tried and convicted on the same charges. Forde received two death sentences plus 65 years in the Arizona Department of Corrections and Bush received two death sentences and 78 years in prison.

Now that the jury has found Gaxiola guilty of the two counts of first-degree murder the trial will move to the aggravation phase starting on Wednesday, July 6. If the jury finds one of the alleged aggravators, multiple murders and a victim under the age of 15, to have been proven then the trial will move to the penalty phase where the burden lies with the defense to persuade the jury to grant the defendant leniency.

Closing arguments

During closing arguments in the trial, Thursday, the jury was reminded of a text message sent on May 30, 2009, by the defendant just hours after the a deadly home invasion in Arivaca.

That message sent by Gaxiola read “Sweet dreams.” Deputy County Attorney Rick Unklesbay paused for a moment. “They had just killed a 9-year-old. They had just killed her father. They had just wounded Gina,” he said. “And, Albert Gaxiola’s text message back to Shawna Forde was ‘Sweet dreams.’ Shawna Forde’s reply was: ‘You’re one of my minutemen.’”

Unklesbay found himself searching for words. “I’m not sure what words can adequately characterize the actions of these people,” he said. “This is beyond outrageous. This is just downright scary.”

Incomprehensible

Albert Gaxiola
(pool photo by Jill
Torrance/Arizona
Daily Star)

During those same closing arguments defense counsel Jack L. Lansdale suggested to the jury that his client was incapable of harming Brisenia or her sister. He asked the jury to recall testimony by the medical examiner complete with detailed pictures of the injuries suffered by Brisenia and her father. “Did anyone of you hearing the testimony during the presentation of the photographs of Brisenia Flores happen to notice Albert and his reaction?” he asked, rhetorically. “For him to participate in any action to hurt those children is incomprehensible.”

Lansdale also reminded the jury that opening statements and closing arguments in a trial are not evidence. “The state stood up and said to you: ‘We’re going to prove to you that Albert Gaxiola was present and that he was involved in the break-in of this home,’” he said. “It’s absolutely inconsistent with the facts.”

Fruitless planning

Unklesbay argued to the jury, Thursday, that the defendant and a fellow drug dealer, Oin Oakstar, had been planning the death of Flores for months. “If it weren’t so serious it would almost be funny in some ways that they have these plans that they can’t carry out,” he said. “It was not until Albert Gaxiola brings in Shawna Forde and Jason Bush that things begin to come together.”

Unklesbay suggested that it took the help of a so-called minuteman organization in order to accomplish those plans. Also, the goals that Forde and Bush have are not the same as those shared by Gaxiola and Oakstar. “It was not until the defendant brings in these two outsiders who have no idea or concept of what’s going on in Arivaca. They don’t know who the drug dealers are. They don’t know where these drug dealers live,” he said.

Fourth motion for a mistrial is denied

2011-06-30T17:50:00.000-07:00

Judge John S. Leonardo

While the Pima County Superior Court jury was in the deliberation room selecting a foreman and deciding their deliberation schedule, Judge John S. Leonardo was listening to a fourth defense motion for a mistrial in the case of former Arivaca resident Albert Robert Gaxiola.

Gaxiola, 43, faces two counts of first-degree murder in the May 30, 2009, deaths of Raul “Junior” Flores and his daughter, Brisenia, 9. Additional charges include: the attempted first-degree murder of Gina Marie Gonzalez; one count of burglary in the first-degree; one count of aggravated assault, serious physical injury; one count of aggravated assault, deadly weapon/dangerous instrument; one count of armed robbery; and one count of aggravated armed robbery.

The basis for this mistrial motion was that Deputy County Attorney Rick Unklesbay vouched for the credibility of victim Gina Gonzalez during rebuttal closing arguments. Unklesbay told the jury that Gonzalez did the best she could to recall the bloody home invasion considering she had witnessed her daughter and husband being shot to death and she had suffered two bullet wounds herself.

Second, the defense claimed Unklesbay had burden-shifted when he told the jury the defense could have had the notebook found at Gaxiola’s house scrutinized by a handwriting expert. Leonardo pointed out that the defense had suggested in their closing argument that the state failed to have the notebook analyzed and that they should have done so if it was that important.

Finally, the defense was critical of Unklesbay suggesting to the jury that Gaxiola had been the one giving the orders to Forde and Bush instead of the other way around. The defense called that a mis-characterization as there was no testimony regarding that allegation.

The motion was denied by Leonardo.