The mass shooter who killed 23 people in an El Paso Walmart in 2019, 26-year-old Patrick Crusius, is set to avoid the death penalty by accepting a plea deal. He was already sentenced to 90 consecutive life sentences after pleading guilty in 2023 to hate crimes and gun charges.
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According to the Daily Mail, after El Paso County District Attorney James Montoya offered the plea deal in March, Crusius will be accepting the deal on Monday, April 21. This comes after federal prosecutors took the death penalty off the table under the Biden administration. The decision behind this decision was never made clear, as per CNN.
DA Montoya, despite his plea deal offer, believes that Crusius deserves the death penalty. However, after meeting with the victims' families, he determined that the plea deal was the way to go. Reportedly, the majority wanted to conclude the state court case and not extend it even further.
"The vast majority of them want this case over and done with as quickly as possible," Montoya said. He added that if the state seeks the death penalty, the case could take years in hearings and appeals. "I could see a worst-case scenario where this would not go to trial until 2028 if we continued to seek the death penalty," he added.
This plea deal has not come without controversy, as Texas Governor Greg Abbott believes he deserves the death penalty. "I've heard about it. I think the guy does deserve the death penalty, to be honest," Abbot said. "Any shooting like that is what capital punishment is for."
Mass Shooting
On August 3, 2019, after driving for more than 10 hours from his Dallas home, Crusius, then a 21-year-old, while wearing earmuffs, began shooting people at the El Paso Walmart, located at 7101 Gateway West Blvd.
He continued to fire his AK-style rifle after entering the store. After exiting the store, he fired at a vehicle, killing an elderly man and injuring his wife. In total, Patrick Crusius killed 23 people in cold blood. He was arrested shortly after at a local intersection, admitting to the massacre to the arresting officers.
It was revealed through an online message posted by Crusius before the massacre that he carried it out "in response to the Hispanic invasion of Texas."
In federal court, Patrick Crusius was sentenced to 90 consecutive life sentences in 2023. Half of the charges were classified as hate crimes, as per CNN. Crusius agreed to pay more than $5 million to the victims he brutally murdered.
