The 23-year-old attacker made it a fatal shooting at the Q Club in Colorado Springs pleaded guilty on Monday to dozens of murder and attempted murder charges, avoiding a lengthy trial over an attack on members of the LGBTQ community.
Under the terms of the plea agreement reached with prosecutors after months of discussions with survivors and relatives of the dead, the defendant, Anderson Lee Aldrich, separately defended two state hate crime charges.
The defendant has been given multiple life sentences — to ensure that he is never released — and is waiving any right to appeal.
The defendant, who identified as non-binary and used the pronoun surname/last, stood on Monday in a courtroom packed with victims of the assault and relatives of those who died, and paid briefly responded to a series of questions by Judge Michael McHenry about whether the defendant understood the terms of the plea.
Judge McHenry then read a list of dozens of names — those of five who were killed and others injured or targeted — and asked, “How do you defend?”
“Guilty.”
Survivors and loved ones then went to a microphone to share tearful memories of those who lost their lives: Daniel Aston’s “burning blue eyes”. Derrick Rump’s smile. The gentle spirit of Raymond Green Vance. How Kelly Loving wants others to be “unrepentantly themselves” and how Ashley Paugh’s young children beg someone to bring their mother back.
They also condemned the accused as “obstinate”, “cowardly” and “animal”. Many of the survivors and relatives referred to the defendant using masculine pronouns, dismissing the non-binary identification as a sham and what one survivor’s mother called ” hideous attempt” for leniency.
“He destroyed a safe haven,” said Michael Anderson, a Club Q employee who survived the attack. “He has broken this community into pieces that can never be repaired.”
Mx. Aldrich showed little emotion as the talkers told of witnessing their friends lying dead on the floor of the Q Club, or hiding beneath bodies. Occasionally, the defendant tapped his leg or glanced at the screen displaying photos of the victims.
In the public gallery, crumpled tissues were piled up on the floor.
In court, the defendant’s lawyer said the defendant was “deeply sorry for all the people they’ve killed, the lives they’ve impacted.”
The plea agreement was reached after months of private discussions between prosecutors, survivors and victims’ families about how to achieve justice in the Club Q shooting. Initially, the defendant faced with more than 300 counts, including assault and other violent crimes, but most of them were not covered in the final plea agreement. Instead, the defendant pleaded guilty to five counts of first-degree murder and 46 counts of attempted murder.
District Attorney Michael J. Allen said Monday that the attack was calculated and motivated by hate. In court, Mr. Allen said Mx. Aldrich intentionally avoided a gun background check by getting a rifle assembled from parts.
Because Colorado no longer applies the death penalty, life in prison without the possibility of parole is the harshest punishment a defendant can receive under state law.
Some victims and family members initially wanted a public trial, rather than a plea agreement, in the hope of learning exactly how and why the shooter attacked the club as well. as to what warning signs have been ignored. Others said they did not want to suffer the pain of watching graphic video of the attack played in court.
Several survivors of the attack said it was important for the shooter to acknowledge bias and wanted recognition that Q Club patrons were attacked for their identities, in a statement. The massacre was deliberately calculated to disrupt an LGBTQ sanctuary in Colorado Springs.
“‘Why’ matters,” Allen said on Monday.
But when he pleaded guilty on Monday, Mx. Aldrich gave no details as to why they carried out the shooting, and little explanation beyond a clear admission in legal language. They did not directly admit to having committed a hate crime by targeting Club Q, but instead said they “do not object” to those charges because it is likely that they will be convicted at trial. court.
Legal experts say the shooter’s gender identity alone does not rule out hate crime charges in the case. Prosecutors said the defendant had “extraordinary disregard” for the LGBTQ community.
“This plea agreement is the weak point for me,” said Ashtin Gamblin, who was hit nine times while working in front of the Q Club on the night of the attack. She said closing the criminal case would not bring any real end to the victims. “It will never go away for us,” she said.
In May, some of the victims take the first legal step toward filing a lawsuit against the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office in Colorado Springs. In a notice of intent to file a lawsuit, the victims said that under Colorado’s red flag laws, Mx. Aldrich’s gun should have been seized after Mx. Aldrich has threatened to bomb several relatives in 2021 and expressed his intention to become “the next serial killer”. An investigation ended when relatives refused to testify, law enforcement officials said.
The United States Attorney’s Office in Denver can still prosecute the defendant for federal hate crimes, which can lead to the death penalty.
On Monday, many victims’ families mourned the unfinished lives of five Mx. Aldrich was killed, people between the ages of 22 and 40. Mr. Aston has been robbed of his dream of going back to college and having children, his mother said. Kassandra Fierro, the girlfriend of 22-year-old Raymond Green Vance, said she would not be able to marry or grow old with him.
“That night we went to the Q Club to celebrate — dance, sing and laugh,” she said. “Only to have our entire future ripped from us.”
