TUCSON, Ariz. — A third border activist convicted in the killings of a southern Arizona man and his young daughter in a 2009 home invasion may have avoided the death penalty.
A Tucson jury decided Friday that Albert Gaxiola should get life in prison for Raul Junior Flores’ death. But jurors couldn’t reach a unanimous decision on the sentence for the death of 9-year-old Brisenia Flores.
The Pima County Attorney’s Office must decide whether to empanel a new jury or let a judge sentence Gaxiola to life with or without the possibility of release.
Gaxiola, 44, was convicted of first-degree murder in the case July 1.
He’s also facing additional time for the attempted first-degree murder of Flores’ wife, Gina Gonzalez, plus a variety of other charges and will be sentenced on those charges Aug. 15.
Prosecutors said Gaxiola was one of three people dressed as law enforcement officers who forced their way into the victims’ home in Arivaca, south of Tucson, at about 1 a.m. on May 30, 2009.
They claimed Gaxiola, of Arivaca, wanted 29-year-old Raul Junior Flores dead because he was a competitor in the drug trade.
Gonzalez testified that her husband — Flores — opened the door to two people claiming to be U.S. Border Patrol agents, and a man opened fire when her husband questioned their identities. Gonzalez was shot twice and as she pretended to be dead, she said the man shot her daughter twice in the face from close range.
After the shootings, Gonzalez said a female intruder announced it was “all clear” to two men who then came in and assisted in ransacking her house. Gonzalez later told detectives the man reminded her of Gaxiola, who was once a family friend.
Gaxiola’s attorneys claimed he wasn’t involved in the slayings and wasn’t anywhere near the victims’ home that morning. The also asked jurors to spare Gaxiola’s life, noting that mental health experts have testified that abuse and neglect Gaxiola suffered as a small child damaged his brain and led him to make poor decisions in life.
Gaxiola’s two co-defendants, Shawna Forde, formerly of Everett, and Jason Bush, also from Washington, were convicted earlier this year and are on Arizona’s death row. Bush, 36, was identified by Gonzalez as the gunman.
The Arizona Daily Star has reported that Bush was part of Minutemen American Defense founder Forde’s plan to rob and kill drug smugglers to fund her organization.
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