TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — The total cost to defend three border activists ultimately convicted of killing a southern Arizona man and his young daughter was more than $951,000. That makes it one of the costliest in Pima County’s history.
The Arizona Daily Star (http://bit.ly/pRZZ2f) reports that the only defendant to avoid death row accounted for 45 percent of the total expenses, and the six attorneys assigned to the cases received roughly $500,000.
Shawna Forde, Jason Bush and Albert Gaxiola all were all convicted of first-degree murder in the May 2009 deaths of 29-year-old Raul Junior Flores and his 9-year-old daughter, Brisenia.
Separate juries sent Forde and Bush — both from Washington state — to death row, but a third jury opted for a life sentence for Gaxiola.
