Tuesday, March 25, 2025
Year : 2, Issue: 30
AP: The gunman who killed 23 people in a racist attack targeting Hispanic shoppers at a Walmart near the U.S.-Mexico border in 2019 would avoid the death penalty under a plea offer announced Tuesday, abruptly ending years of efforts by prosecutors to see that he face execution by lethal injection.
El Paso County District Attorney James Montoya said his decision in the prosecution of Patrick Crusius for one of the deadliest mass shootings in U.S. history was driven by victims’ families who wanted the case behind them. Otherwise he could envision a worst-case scenario where it would not see trial until 2028.
“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,” Montoya said at a news conference.
“Now, no one in this community will ever have to hear the perpetrator’s name ever again,” he added. “No more hearings. No more appeals. He will die in prison.”
But Montoya also acknowledged that not all families agreed with the reversal by his office, which under previous leadership had committed to taking the case to trial and seeking the death penalty.
Under the plea offer, Montoya said, Crusius would receive life in prison with no possibility of parole. Crusius, 26, was already sentenced to 90 consecutive life sentences at the federal level after pleading guilty in 2023 to hate crime charges.
Mark Stevens, an attorney for Crusius, did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.
Under the Biden administration, federal prosecutors also took the death penalty off the table but did not explain why. In addition to the federal case, Crusius was also charged in state court with capital murder.
Montoya said he supports the death penalty and believes Crusius deserves it. But he said he met with the families of the victims and there was an overriding desire to conclude the process, though some relatives were willing to wait as long as it took for a death sentence.
