EL PASO, TEXAS: Patrick Crusius, the 24-year-old mass shooter who killed 23 people and left two dozens injured in the 2019 El Paso mass shooting at a Walmart store, was sentenced to 90 consecutive life sentences on Friday, July 7. He pleaded guilty to nearly 50 federal hate crime charges earlier this year for orchestrating what is considered the deadliest attack on Latinos in modern American history. It is one of the largest hate crime cases in the country.
US District Judge David Guaderrama announced Crusius' sentencing following two days of heartbreaking impact statements and testimonies from relatives of the victims. During the sentencing, Crusius was seen in court wearing a jumpsuit and shackles. He did not speak at the hearing and reportedly did not show any emotions while his sentence was being read by the judge, the Associated Press reported. Crusius' family remained absent from the court during his sentencing.
Can Patrick Crusius still face the death penalty?
While Crusius was given 90 consecutive death sentences for planning and executing the 2019 El Paso mass shooting, he can reportedly face more punishment for his crime, including the death penalty, the publication mentioned. The 24-year-old first pled guilty to hate crime charges in February after federal prosecutors took death penalty off the table. "The United States of America hereby notifies the Court and Defendant Patrick Wood Crusius that the Government will not seek the death penalty in the instant case," prosecutors said in a one-sentence filing at the time.
While the decision sparked major outrage, the Justice Department, at the time, did not explain the reason behind the decision to avoid seeking death penalty against Crusius. However, Crusius is set to face a separate trial in a Texas court that could end with the mass shooter getting the death penalty for carrying out one of the worst known hate crimes in America. While federal prosecutors decided to leave out death penalty, Texas prosecutors have said that they will try to put Crusius on death row when he will stand trial in state court.
In the wake of the sentencing, Attorney General Merrick Garland said "no one in this country should have to live in fear of hate-fueled violence." As Crusius was led away from the courtroom, Dean Reckard, whose mother Margie Reckard died in the shooting, yelled, "We’ll be seeing you again, coward. No apologies, no nothing." Tito Anchondo, whose brother Andre Anchondo also died in the attack, called the sentence "the best it’s going to get."
"In a sense justice was served today, and in another sense I don’t think anything is ever going to be the same," he said, adding that the life sentence ensures that Crusius will be thinking about his actions while serving prison term for the rest of his life. The date for Crusius' trial in the Texas court is yet to be announced.
'Patrick’s thinking is at odds with reality'
Prior to the sentencing, Crusius' attorney Joe Spencer told the judge that his client has a "broken brain." He said Crusius arrived in El Paso without a specific target in mind and ended up unleashing the brutal attack in Walmart. "Patrick’s thinking is at odds with reality… resulting in delusional thinking," Spencer said.The attorney claimed that Crusius was allegedly alarmed by his own thoughts and left a job at a movie theater due to the raging violence in his head. He also reportedly dropped out of a community college and searched ways online to deal with his alleged mental struggles.
Assistant US Attorney Ian Hanna, who prosecuted the government's case, said Crusius embraced the "insidious lie" that America only belonged to white people. "He wanted to eliminate a class of people," Hanna mentioned, as per the Associated Press. After reading out the sentence, Judge Guaderrama recommended Crusius to serve his sentence at a maximum security prison in Colorado and asked him receive treatment and counseling for a severe mental health condition.
On August 3, 2019, Crusius drove more than 700 miles from his home near Dallas to attack Hispanics with an AK-style rifle inside and outside a Walmart store in El Paso. Crusius reportedly became consumed by the debate surrounding immigration prior to planning the shooting. Moments before launching the attack, Crusius took to social media to post a racist screed, warning that there would be Hispanic "invasion" of Texas and claiming that Hispanics would take over the government and economy. The-then 21-year-old was arrested shortly after the shooting.
