TUCSON, Ariz. — A Tucson jury has sentenced a second border activist to death in the killings of a Southern Arizona man and his young daughter in May 2009.
Jason Bush, 36, was sentenced Wednesday to capital punishment for the killings of Raul Junior Flores, 29, and Brisenia Flores, 9,
according to the Pima County Attorney’s Office.
“Death by lethal injection on both counts,” said Cheryl Thompson, a supervisor in the county attorney’s office. Witnesses in the courtroom said Bush showed no emotion as the verdict was read.
The Washington state man was convicted March 25 of two counts of first-degree murder. Prosecutors alleged that he and two others dressed as law enforcement officers and forced their way into the victims’ home in Arivaca, south of Tucson.
The Arizona Daily Star reports Bush was part of Minutemen American Defense founder Shawna Forde’s plan to rob and kill drug smugglers to fund her organization.
Forde, 43, of Everett, was convicted and sentenced to death in February.
Bush’s defense attorney, Richard Parrish, had pleaded with jurors to remember their promise to keep an open mind during the mitigation phase of the trial.
He told jurors Bush was incorrigible since he was 2 and that his parents legally disowned him at 11 and committed him to a mental institution where he was sexually abused by older boys.
Parrish said Bush has been in and out of jail and prison, where he never received the help he needed.
Bush was also found guilty of attempted first-degree murder, first-degree burglary and multiple counts of robbery and aggravated assault. He will be sentenced on those counts May 13.
The third co-defendant, Albert Gaxiola, goes on trial June 1. He could also face the death penalty.
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