Texas Walmart shooter Patrick Crusius gets 90 life sentences
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The gunman who killed 23 people in a racist attack on Hispanic shoppers at a Walmart in Texas was sentenced on Friday to 90 consecutive life sentences, but could still face the death penalty.
Patrick Crusius, 24, pleaded guilty earlier this year to nearly 50 federal hate crime charges in the 2019 mass shooting in El Paso, making it one of the U.S. government’s largest hate crime cases.
Crusius, who appeared in the courtroom wearing a jumpsuit and shackles only spoke when asked a question by the judge and showed no reaction as the verdict was read.
The judge recommended Crusius serve his sentence at the ADX Florence maximum security prison in Colorado, the most secure in the US prison system.
His victims’ relatives spent hours on Wednesday calling him a “coward,” a “monster,” a “killer,” a “parasite,” and more as they emotionally detailed how he had destroyed their lives with his attack. It was the first time the victims’ were able to address the killer in court – nearly four years after his wrongdoings.
“I hope God one day finds the heart to forgive you for what you’ve done,” Raul Loya, a relative of a victim, said on Wednesday through tears, according to CNN.
One of the victims, a teenage soccer player who was only identified as G.A., told his attacker: “I still remember everything so clearly, even though I have tried to erase it from my memory.”
Thomas Hoffman, who lost his father Alexander, told Crusius: “You’re an ignorant coward and you deserve to suffer in jail and then burn in hell.”
Alexander was scheduled to fly to Germany, where he was born, the day he was killed, leaving his family in disbelief. Alexander had immigrated to Mexico from Germany in the 1980s and his family remembers him as a “gentle giant with a big heart.”
“You are an evil parasite that is nothing without a weapon,” Hoffman told Crusius.
One by one, family members used their first opportunity since the shooting to directly address Crusius, describing how their lives have been upended by grief and pain. However, some still chose to forgive Crusius. One man displayed photographs of his slain father, insisting the gunman look at them.
Bertha Benavides’ husband of 34 years, Arturo, was among those killed.
“You left children without their parents, you left spouses without their spouses, and we still need them,” she told Crusius.
During the initial statements from victims, Crusius occasionally swiveled in his seat or bobbed his head with little sign of emotion. On Thursday, his eyes appeared to well up as victims condemned the brutality of the shootings and demanded Crusius respond and account for his actions. At one point, Crusius consulted with a defense attorney at his side then gestured that he would not answer.
Crusius’ family did not appear in the courtroom during the sentencing phase.
Crusius drove more than 700 miles from his home near Dallas to target Hispanics with an AK-47 style rifle inside and outside of the packed Walmart center. Moments before the attack began, Crusius posted a racist screed online that warned of a Hispanic “invasion” of Texas.
Crusius pleaded guilty in February after federal prosecutors took the death penalty off the table. But Texas prosecutors have said they will attempt to put Crusius on death row when he stands trial in state court. A date for that trial has not yet been set.
As he was led from the courtroom, a family member of one of the victims shouted at Crusius from the gallery.
“We’ll be seeing you again, coward. No apologies, no nothing.”
Joe Spencer, Crusius’ attorney, told the judge before the sentencing his client had a “broken brain.”
“Patrick’s thinking is at odds with reality…resulting in delusional thinking,” Spencer told the court.
Crusius became alarmed by his own violent thoughts, including once leaving a job at a movie theater because of those thoughts, Spencer said. He said Crusius once searched online to look for ways to address his mental health and dropped out of a community college near Dallas because of his struggles.
Spencer said Crusius had arrived in El Paso without a specific target in mind before winding up at the Walmart.
“Patrick acted with his broken brain cemented in delusions,” Spencer said.
In addition to the dead, more than two dozen people were injured and numerous others were severely traumatized as they hid or fled.
The attack was the deadliest of a dozen mass shootings in the U.S. linked to hate crimes since 2006, according to a database compiled by The Associated Press, USA Today and Northeastern University.
Margaret Juarez, whose 90-year-old father was slain in the attack and whose mother was wounded but survived, said she found it ironic a racist like Crusius is set to spend his life in prison among inmates from racial and ethnic minorities. Other relatives and survivors in the courtroom applauded as she celebrated their liberty.
“Swim in the waters of prison,” she told Crusius. “Now we’re going to enjoy the sunshine. … We still have our freedom, in our country.”
However, if sent to ADX Florence Crucius will be housed in a solitary cell, with no contact with any other inmates.
The people who were killed ranged in age from a 15-year-old high school athlete to several elderly grandparents. They included immigrants, a retired city bus driver, teachers, tradesmen including a former iron worker, and several Mexican nationals who had crossed the U.S. border on routine shopping trips.
“He was shot at close range by a coward and there was his innocent blood everywhere,” said Kathleen Johnson, whose husband David was among the victims. “I don’t know when I’ll be the same… The pain you have caused is indescribable.”
With Post wires.
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