Opinion ID: 867374
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Comparison to 9/11 attacks.

Text: ¶ 61 Ida LaMere, Ellen's mother, discussed the family's feelings of loss as follows: We know death is inevitable, disease, accidents, old age, wars, but not like this. There really aren't any words to express the horror and devastation of a 4:00 a.m. phone call telling me my baby has been shot to death along with her friend. The best I can compare this to is what you all might have felt the day of September 11 when the horrible, devastating attacks to New York and Washington, D.C. happened, and always living in the fear that you just don't know what is going to happen any more. ¶ 62 This statement was not unduly prejudicial. LaMere drew a comparison between an event universally painful for all Americans and the pain she and her family experienced as a result of Ellen's murder. She did not equate Garza to the 9/11 terrorists; rather, her statement properly focuse[d] on the effect of the crime on the victim and the victim's family. Roque, 213 Ariz. at 221 ¶ 114, 141 P.3d at 396. [13]