A man accused of murdering 23 people at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, in a racially motivated attack nearly six years ago is expected to plead guilty to capital murder Monday.
Patrick Crusius acknowledged that he targeted Hispanics when he executed one of the largest mass shootings in U.S. history in 2019.
El Paso County District Attorney James Montoya said that under the plea deal, Crusius would plead guilty and receive life in prison without the possibility of parole. Prosecutors in Texas declined to pursue the death penalty.
Under the plea agreement, the victims’ families will be able to deliver victim impact statements. Similar statements were made during his 2023 federal trial. He has already been sentenced to 90 consecutive life sentences at the federal level after he pleaded guilty to hate crimes and weapons charges.
Prosecutors have said that Crusius drove for more than 10 hours from his home in the Dallas suburbs to El Paso and opened fire at the Walmart, which is a popular shopping location for those from the U.S. and Mexico.
Hours before the mass shooting, on an online message board, Crusius, a white 21-year-old, said the shooting was “in response to the Hispanic invasion of Texas.”
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Montoya said he believed the death penalty was warranted in this case, but declined to pursue it because he believed the trial would be further delayed until 2028. Some victims’ families also wanted the death penalty, including Stephanie Melendez, whose father, David Johnson, died in the attack, but switched their tune as the case dragged on.
“I just wanted it to be over,” Melendez said. “I was done reliving everything. I was done going to court for hours. I was done with the briefings that happened after that would last hours, and it was just the same talk over and over again. We were just ready to be done with it all because, honestly, it’s like reliving the trauma over and over again.”