01x01 - Shawna Forde

[bunniefuu]

[anxious music]

- It's one of the
worst I've seen.

It's horrific.

- [Reporter] A double m*rder
leaves its mark on Arivaca.

- This is a very unusual woman.

She's at best a psychopath.

- [Reporter] Shawna Forde sat
quietly in the courtroom today

as she received
the death penalty.

- For somebody to
have so much hate

to take the life of a
nine year old child,

or of any child, I just,

that I can't understand.

[dramatic music]

[tense music]

- [Reporter] A double m*rder
leaves its mark on Arivaca.

Shawna Forde, Jason Eugene Bush

and Albert Robert
Gaxiola are charged

with a home invasion
that k*lled Raul Flores

and his nine year old
daughter Brisenia.

- [Reporter] Shawna Forde
has since been identified

as the group's mastermind.

- No, I did not do it. I
had nothing to do with it.

[dramatic music]

- Throughout my career,

both as a journalist
and spokesperson

for the Texas Department
of Criminal Justice,

I witnessed about

In the United States,

there are about 2,450
individuals on death row,

and of that number
about 50 are women.

Around 27 states still
allow the death penalty.

Only 24 of them actually
carry out executions.

In Arizona there are only
three women on death row.

[dissonant music]

- Arivaca doesn't generate
a lot of 911 calls.

It's a quiet place,
very picturesque.

Regarding the call that
we got on May 30 of 2009,

that was unexpected.

[tense music]

In terms of just

complete blatant
disregard for human life,

it's one of the worst, it's
one of the worst I've seen.

It's horrific.

[dramatic music]

- It looks pretty much the same,

clearly more rundown.

It's sad, really.

This is where Shawna and
Jason knocked on the door,

and told them that
they were border patrol

looking for fugitives,

and this is where they were
ultimately let into the house.

Just beyond that window,

again, that's a den, it's an
offshoot of the living room.

So once you walk
through that door

you walk straight
into the living room,

and that's where the
murders took place.

That's where Shawna
and Jason gathered Gina

and Raul into the living room.

Brisenia was on a love
seat that was just,

just beyond that room.

And pretty quickly
Raul was shot,

and then Gina was shot.

They didn't waste any time.

Brisenia is on the couch,

and Jason literally is
reloading a magazine

as he's walking up to her.

And he puts the g*n
right to her face

and he shoots.

It's so tragic.

[dramatic music]

- They knew a family lived here,

and they knew exactly what
they were going to do.

Gina's other daughter luckily
was not home at the time

because their true mission

was to eliminate
an entire family.

The lore was that
Raul "Junior" Flores

was at least mid-level in his
business of drug trafficking,

and had hundreds of
thousands of dollars

here on the property.

He did not keep
drugs and money here

at his family's home.

And this was where he
raised his daughters.

This is where they had
their family dinners.

People may have
thought that Raul

kept drugs and money here,

but we certainly didn't
find that to be the case.

- [Gina] Come now?

[g*n firing]

[tense music]

- [Operator] Hello, you have
call at no expense to you

from an inmate at
AMPC Perryville.

[dramatic music]

- Yeah, yes.

- [Jaszmin] You
look pretty today.

- We are planning
an in-person visit.

- Yep.

- It'll be nice seeing you.

- No crying.
[computer beeps]

Oop, it ended.

I was 17 years old the
last time I saw my mom.

I got a phone call.

My mom was in
custody of the police

for a m*rder.

At first I'm thinking
this isn't real,

this can't be.

And this isn't possible

that she would sh**t a
little girl in the face.

[dramatic music]

- [Gina] You guys come now?

[g*n firing]

- Once they left, it's
when Shawna realized

that she didn't have
her firearm on her,

so they returned thinking
the whole family's dead,

and much to their
surprise, Gina was up

and talking and on
the phone with 911.

It is Shawna who
finds Gina alive,

and orders to quote,
unquote, finish the job.

And there's the firefight
that we hear on 911.

[g*n firing]

[gentle music]

[dramatic music]

- Gina, for her to fight
back the way she did,

and actually get a shot in

and get us some blood,

it was huge for the case.

- Jason had gotten shot by Gina

while conducting
this home invasion.

- Shawna's g*n was found
just outside the fence line.

Blood was found as well.

So it was a treasure
trove of evidence.

[tense music]

When I interviewed Gina in
the hospital was Sunday,

two days after her husband
and child were m*rder*d.

She was very clear, very
clear on what happened,

and what she saw
and what she did,

and who she thought was there.

She thought that one
of the assailants

was a person she knew as Albert.

- And then we started
getting Albert's name

from other people
in the community.

And his name is Albert Gaxiola.

Putting that together,
we were able

to get a search warrant
for Albert's house.

While we were at Albert's house,

we found g*ns, walkie talkies,

border patrol items.

We also found
Shawna's business card

proclaiming her as
the executive director

of some Minuteman group.

- Shawna Forde started MAD,

or Minutemen American Defense,

and that was being armed,

and going out and
confronting out in the desert

these drug trafficking
organizations

that would come through,

or immigration that
would come through.

- Hi, this is Shawna Forde

with Minutemen American Defense,

and I'm down here on
the southern border.

I wanna make sure
I can do my part

in helping to get
these borders secured.

- So while we're
at Gaxiola's house,

there is a camouflage jacket
with the name of Bush.

- When we start looking
up Shawna Forde,

and the Minutemen
American Defense Group,

she lists Jason "Gunny" Bush.

And there was a
phone number listed.

We found that Jason's
phone was actually pinging

in the area.

We went out to
conduct surveillance,

and sure enough we end up
seeing after a couple hours

Jason Bush exit the house

with some bandages over his leg

where he had been shot at.

- Jason Bush confessed
to everything.

[dramatic music]

- That child had a muzzle
impact on her face,

on her face.

And Shawna ordered
that to happen,

and she stood
there while it did,

and she ordered
Jason Bush to do it,

who is a weak piece of
[beep], by the way.

- Jason Bush wanted to be a part

of some big military thing,

and the closest he can get
was some extremist group

like the Minutemen
American Defense group

led by Shawna Forde.

[tense music]

[dramatic music]

- In Jason's confession,

he told us Shawna had an
operation for them to conduct.

He confessed that
it was him, Shawna

and Albert Gaxiola that actually
went into the residence,

and that just solidified
Shawna's involvement

with this heinous act.

The next day Shawna Forde
was picked up in Sierra Vista.

[Shawna laughing]

- There was never
any worry on our part

when it went to trial.

We knew that we had
the right people.

- [Reporter] Albert,
did you do it?

- No.

- [Reporter] What do you think
about that nine-year-old?

- I think that's tragic.

- [Reporter] Did you do it?

- No, I did not do it. I
had nothing to do with it.

- One thing that people
should understand

is for the death
penalty to be assessed,

it's not just a "simple m*rder",

it has to be a capital m*rder.

And a capital m*rder is a m*rder
in commission of another felony.

So that's gonna be a
kidnapping and a m*rder,

a sexual as*ault and a m*rder.

It's going to be m*rder
and something else.

It can also involve a child,

and that automatically
can be a capital m*rder.

And so among the
women on death row,

women who are
currently on death row,

and women who have
been on death row

who have since been ex*cuted,

it has been because
they have k*lled

very young children.

[tense music]

- I'm Merrill Metzger.

And Shawna Forde
is my half sister.

- That's going on my
couch or my chair.

- When she was a baby,

she was adopted.

My mother put her
up for adoption.

She decided in 1987 she
wanted to find her mother,

and that's when she
came into the family.

And of course my
mother said, you know,

"Hey, I have this daughter
that you guys don't know,

and we'd like to bring
her back into the family."

That was the first
time I met her.

[tense music]

[tense music]

- [Rick] The trial started
later in January of 2011.

The best evidence
against Shawna Forde

was the DNA evidence we had

that connected both Bush and
Shawna Forde to the crime.

When she was arrested,

Gina's jewelry was in
Shawna's possession.

Shawna Forde's DNA
was on the jewelry,

so was Gina's.

It was clearly stuff that,

items that Shawna Forde
had stolen from the house.

Messages back and forth
between Shawna Forde,

Jason Bush, Albert Gaxiola

talking about the
logistics of all this.

The most critical
testimony was from Gina.

She described how Shawna Forde

was clearly the
person in charge.

There was also
confidential informants.

- That was critical
evidence to us.

- I don't care who you are,

when you do something
heinous like that,

if you was God,

I would tell everybody.

You gotta love the person,

but you have to hate the sin,

and so I called the police.

- Yes, I carry a
g*n all the time,

right here.

I feel very secure.

[rising dramatic music]

[tense music]

[dramatic music]

- Shawna Forde was a hairdresser

up in a small town
in Washington.

She became interested in
border issues in Arizona,

and traveled down here,

and began hanging out with,

trying to join these
MinuteMen groups,

or these border militia groups.

- Shawna was a patriot,

and I supported her.

I stood behind her 100%.

I'd say it was probably
about 2007, I'd say,

she asked me if I wanted
to be a part of it.

So she asked me if I
would be a researcher,

and I said yeah, sure, why not?

I believe I was probably
the first person recruited.

- On the southern border,

if you happen to be Hispanic,
walking around with a backpack,

that's kind of a telltale sign.

This is Shawna Forde with
Minutemen American Defense.

- Soon after that, Jason
Bush and Albert Gaxiola

came into the picture.

When you're talking
about k*lling people

and digging out b*ll*ts,

I mean you're talking
about a serious crime.

That's m*rder.

It shocked me.

It scared me.

And I told her, I said

"You really need to
think about that."

She said "I don't care,
it's for my country."

And so I told her, I said
"I can't do this anymore,"

and I quit.

- There's very dynamic
people in the movement,

in Minutemen, that you
can just see that passion

of how much they
love their country.

It's an addiction,
I'm an addict.

- [Merrill] It was incredibly
fast how drastic she changed.

- But I hang more now with

radicals. [laughing]

- It's a very
emotional thing for me

to talk about that little girl.

For somebody to
have so much hate

to take a life of a
nine year old child,

or any child, I just,

that I can't understand.

I can't understand it.

[dramatic music]

- The evidence against
her was overwhelming.

It was beyond any doubt.

Shawna's defense was
that she didn't do it.

When asked about Arivaca,
she said she wasn't there.

Basically their defense
was, "I wasn't there,

it wasn't me."

- [Juror] Yes.

- The jury, they
deliberated really just

a couple of hours, as I recall,

and they found
Shawna Forde guilty

beyond a reasonable doubt.

[tense music]

The rest of the trial
was the mitigation phase,

the opportunity for the
defense to present evidence

to the jury about
why they should not

impose the death penalty.

- [Judge] The jury is entering.

- After a week and a half they
came back with their verdict

that the death penalty
should be imposed.

- [Reporter] Shawna Forde sat
quietly in the courtroom today

as she received
the death penalty.

- The next week we began
Jason Bush's trial,

he went second.

But it lasted maybe
four or five weeks.

That jury also imposed
the death penalty.

About a month later I
think it was, after that

we tried Albert Gaxiola's case.

It lasted several weeks,

and that jury ended up
imposing a life sentence

rather than the death sentence.

So Forde and Bush
got death imposed,

Albert Gaxiola got a
natural life sentence.

- The death penalty for
any one of these people

is not my decision,

but I know what they did,

and they are not fit for

human community.

They're a waste of space.

[tense music]

[dramatic music]

[tense music]

- Yeah, I'm angry
with my sister.

I'm angry,

but she's still my sister.

- Yeah.

I would like to
speak to my sister.

I don't think she
would speak to me.

She's still got
hardships against me.

She thinks that I had no
business reporting to the police

anything about
her family member.

- I would tell
her the same thing

that I told her
in my last letter,

that none of the family
wants her to die,

that no matter what
she's still my sister

and that I love her

and I care.

[cell ringtone music]

- [Jaszmin] Oh, I
turned you off speaker.

- [Jaszmin] So,
how's things going?

- Ouch.

- [Jaszmin] It's not
that bad anymore.

Now it's just like,
sometimes in the morning,

sometimes not.

- No.

- [Jaszmin] What?

- [Jaszmin] Fine.

- I'm very happy when
we talk on the phone.

It's nice to have
her in some capacity.

- All right, I love you.

- Alright, bye.

- The story for me is it was,

the trial wasn't fair,

so I didn't believe in the case,

it was pretty much,
he said, she said, BS.

- In looking at
Shawna and her life,

and the fact that
she had a child

and she ordered the death,

the execution of another child,

it does make me wonder

what, how does,

how do you make that
right in your head?

But Shawna's all about Shawna.

Clearly Shawna doesn't care
about her daughter either.

Otherwise, she would have
made a different choice.

- I feel tired. [laughing]

And maybe that's why
I don't feel anxious.

I do wanna see my mom again,

but then I don't.

It's not that I
don't wanna see her,

it's that seeing
her and touching her

or being near her
will bring up emotions

that I've buried
very, very far down.

I do feel like I have to
disconnect to survive,

'cause it's the way
I have survived.

It's the way I've learned
to cope with what I've lost.

[tense music]

- In terms of our
judicial system,

yeah, yeah, justice was served.

But I can't imagine what

justice feels like to Gina.

In my opinion,

Shawna Forde had a lot
of chances in life,

and she made a choice.

She made a choice
about her own ego,

and she didn't care
who got in her way,

even a tiny nine year old.

So I have nothing
for Shawna Forde.

- I get to see my mom.

It's been a long time.

It might be a little awkward.

I haven't seen her since 2010.

[dramatic music]

- I told her I loved her,

and I walked away.

I mean I wish I could
have hugged her.

- I'm the only constant thing.

My brother barely talks to her.

My family has abandoned her
and talked horrible about her.

- There's no way.

I believe when it
comes to my mother

there's no way she would
be involved in that.

[dramatic music]

- The death chamber,

it's really a very
small, very stark room

that has truly just a
gurney in that room,

and a small step stool.

There's a microphone that
extends from the ceiling

so that when the inmate is
making their last statement

it can be heard clearly in
the two witnessing rooms.

There are five members
of the victim's family

who are allowed
to be in one room,

and five members of
the inmate's family

that are allowed to
be in the other room.

And then between
both of those rooms

there are five media witnesses
who are allowed to attend.

[ethereal music]

The thing that I always noticed

with the female
executions is that

they never requested
a last meal,

and the women, when given
the opportunity to speak,

never chose to speak, they
didn't make a last statement.

- It hurts me when I think
about that little girl.

It hurts me to think
about her father too,

but the father and his
rival were involved in this,

and that little girl had
nothing to do with any of it.

Nothing.

[gentle music]

- My mom is gonna have
a needle in her arm

that was funded
by the government.

My mom's gonna have a bunch
of people that want her dead

surrounding her in that room,

thinking, "Let's get
this over with."

There's no words that
you can really put to it.

There's absolutely none.

I have made one requirement.

I wanna be there.

I want her face to see mine.

I want her to know that
somebody loved her.

I will be there.

I will watch and witness.

- [Producer] Jaszmin has
said if that day comes,

your execution day,
she wants to be there.

- No, she will not.

I will not allow it.

I would never invite somebody
into the execution chamber.

My side will be empty.

[dramatic music]