The Texas The gunman – who allegedly targeted Latinos when he killed 23 people inside a Walmart in a mass shooting in 2019 – was sentenced to 90 consecutive life sentences.
Patrick Crusius was said to remain emotionless when Senior US Judge David C. Guaderrama delivered his sentence on Friday, every CNN. He received a life sentence for each of his 90 federal crimes.
El Paso Walmart Shooter remains emotionless as he is sentenced to 90 life terms
The crime by the 24-year-old, which occurred inside the El Paso Walmart on August 3, 2019, remains one of the deadliest anti-Latino attacks in modern US history, the network reports.
Residents from El Paso, Juárez and Germany were killed in the massacre, according to El Paso Times.
Prosecutors also charged Crusius with hate crimes and gun charges. He pleaded guilty to those charges in the massacre earlier this year.
Meanwhile, Crusius’ defense attorney, Joe Spencertold the court that Crusius had accepted responsibility for the harm he had caused and that his rampage was due to severe mental illness.
“Patrick will be released from prison in a coffin. The only question is, will it come in God’s time or man’s time?” Spencer spoke in court during the allotted 40 minutes shortly before sentencing.
RELATED: Federal prosecutors will not seek death penalty for man accused of racist El Paso Walmart Massacre
Patrick Crusius’ latest courtroom sketch (the basis for ‘Chudjak’) from today’s Federal trial. pic.twitter.com/YW0Au7FOU0
– Otter (@otterjak) July 6, 2023
However, federal prosecutor Ian Martinez Hanna denied those insinuations.
“What happened was a cold, calculated plot targeting immigrants and Hispanics,” Hanna said, according to the newspaper. El Paso Times. “A shooting that spares no one. It’s not a crime of passion. It was not an accident. It was a calculated move that he planned.”
Authorities said Crusius had uploaded an offensive post online before the shooting, which stated: “This attack is a response to the Spanish invasion of Texas.”
He is also accused of driving to El Paso from the Dallas suburbs – about 700 miles – to carry out the massacre.
In January, federal prosecutors said they would not pursue the death penalty against Crusius, Shade room previous report.
Mother of one victim lashed out at gunman after sentencing: ‘We’ll see you again’
According to the Times, as court staff escorted Crusius out of the courtroom, one of the victim’s mothers threw words at the convicted gunman.
“We will see you again, coward. We’ll see you again,” shouted Margie Reckard, the mother of Dean Reckard, who was killed in the shooting.
Friday’s sentencing wraps up an emotional three-day sentencing trial, which began on Wednesday (July 5).
El Paso DA: Death penalty still on table for Walmart Shooter state murder case
However, while his federal case is closed, the death penalty is still on trial in connection with his Texas capital murder trial.
The El Paso Times reports that El Paso District Attorney Bill Hicks announced Thursday that his office intends to pursue such corporal punishment.
The court has not set a date for the state hearing. Hicks believes it will begin around 2025, according to the outlet.
Crusius pleaded not guilty to the state charges against him. According to the Times, he will eventually be transferred to serve his sentence at the ADX Florence supermax federal prison.
The outlet reports that the prison is home to some of the most wanted criminals in US history. Those prisoners included Oklahoma City bomber Terry Nichols and Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.
