A Texas district attorney said Tuesday he will no longer pursue the death penalty against the gunman who killed 23 people in a racially motivated attack at an El Paso Walmart in 2019.
Patrick Crusius is expected to plead guilty to state charges in exchange for a sentence of life without parole and no appeals in the case, El Paso District Attorney James Montoya said.
Crusius, now 26, drove from Allen, Texas, to El Paso armed with a semi-automatic variant of an AK-47 rifle and opened fire on Walmart shoppers in an attack in which he targeted Mexicans on Aug. 3, 2019.
Montoya said that in dropping the death penalty, he spoke with victims' families, a "strong consensus" of whom wanted to "see the case concluded as quickly as possible, even if that meant no longer pursuing the death penalty."
“Withdrawing the death penalty has nothing to do with my stance on capital punishment, nor is it a question of guilt or a lack of evidence. I believe in the death penalty,” Montoya said in a statement.
“This is about allowing the families of the 23 victims who lost their lives on that horrific day — and the 22 wounded — to finally have resolution in our court system,” he said.
Twenty-two people were killed in the attack, and a 23rd victim died nine months later from injuries suffered in the shooting.
Minutes before the attack, Crusius posted a hate-filled racist screed online in which he referred to an “invasion” of immigrants to the United States, the Justice Department said.
Crusius is already serving 90 consecutive terms of life in prison after he pleaded guilty to federal hate crime charges. He pleaded guilty in the federal case in February 2023 after federal prosecutors said they would not seek the death penalty.
Although the guilty plea settled the federal case, Crusius was also charged on state counts.
He is scheduled to plead guilty to the state charges on April 21, the district attorney’s office said.
"Now, no one in this community will ever have to hear the perpetrator’s name ever again," Montoya said. "No more hearings. No more appeals. He will die in prison.”
