Shooter who killed 23 at Texas Walmart sentenced to 90 life terms

EL PASO, Texas – A federal judge on Friday sentenced a white supremacist to 90 consecutive life terms in prison for

a 2019 shooting in which he killed 23 people and wounded 22 others

at a Texas Walmart store while targeting Hispanics, according to court records and prosecutors.

The sentencing by United States District Judge David Guaderrama in El Paso adheres to a plea agreement in February in which shooter Patrick Crusius, 24, pleaded guilty and agreed to 90 consecutive life sentences with no possibility of parole to avoid the federal death penalty.

But Crusius still faces Texas state charges that could result in the death penalty.

Included in the plea were 45 counts of violating a hate crime prevention law and 45 counts of using a firearm during a violent crime.

Crusius did not speak in court. His attorney, Mr Joe Spencer, made a statement for him in which he said the shooter suffered from mental illness, which drove him to carry out the shooting, according to the Texas Tribune newspaper.

Prosecutors rebutted that and said he knew what he was doing when he carried out the massacre.

First Assistant US Attorney Margaret Leachman said in a written statement that she hoped the victims’ families find “some finality and peace” with the sentencing.

“The US Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Texas will continue to aggressively prosecute those who commit violence because of bias or hate, seeking justice in the names of the victims and their loved ones,” she said.

Crusius’ federal sentencing followed two days of emotional testimony from witnesses and some of the 22 wounded survivors, as well as relatives of the 23 dead, who delivered impact statements in the presence of the shooter.

“I want you dead,” said Genesis Davila, who was 12 years old and present when her soccer coach was killed and her father was wounded in the shooting.

KVIA television reported that she looked directly at the shooter on Wednesday and told him: “I hate you so much. Hell has a special place for you.”

Mr Thomas Hoffman, who lost his father, Mr Alexander Hoffman, called the shooter an “evil parasite”, the Dallas Morning News reported.

Prosecutors said the shooter drove more than 1,000km overnight from suburban Dallas to the border city of El Paso, to carry out the massacre on Aug 3, 2019, with a Romanian derivative of the AK-47 and hollow-point bullets which expand on impact, causing a more lethal hit.

Just before the assault, he

posted on the Internet a manifesto

that declared: “This attack is a response to the Hispanic invasion of Texas. They are the instigators, not me. I am simply defending my country from cultural and ethnic replacement brought on by the invasion.” REUTERS