Image caption Forde (centre) orchestrated the robbery

An anti-immigration activist has been sentenced to death for the 2009 murder of a nine year-old-girl and her father.

Shawna Forde, 43, organised a break-in at the Arizona home of Raul Flores apparently to fund her group, which campaigns against illegal immigration.

But the burglary went wrong and 29-year-old Mr Flores was shot dead along with his daughter Brisenia.

Forde was convicted of first-degree murder. Her alleged accomplices have yet to be tried.

She was was also convicted of attempted murder and robbery.

The girl's mother, Gina Gonzales, survived being shot and later identified her attackers.

During the trial, the jury was told the young girl had pleaded with her attackers to not fire on her, but was still shot in the head.

Forde and two men dressed as police officers forced their way into Mr Flores' home in Arivaca, 10 miles (16km) north of the Mexican border.

She apparently believed there were drugs on the premises and had planned to sell them to fund her group of so-called border vigilantes, known as the Minutemen American Defense.

Forde began her own group after reportedly being expelled from the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, a national volunteer group which monitors US borders for illegal immigrants.

Albert Robert Gaxiola and Jason Eugene Bush, Forde's alleged accomplices, are scheduled to go on trial later this year.