El Paso, Texas – The gunman who killed 23 people in a racist Attack at a Texas Walmart – It is expected that one of the most mortal mass shootings in the history of the United States Accept a guilt agreement In a state court on Monday to avoid the death penalty.
Patrick Crusius has acknowledged that he addressed Hispanics on August 3, 2019, when he opened fire in the store full of weekend buyers of the United States and Mexico in the border city of The step.
According to the offer, Crusius would declare himself guilty of capital murder and receive life imprisonment without the possibility of probation, said the County District of El Paso, James Montoya.
Texas prosecutors refused to continue the death penalty. Montoya says that the decision was promoted by most relatives of the victims who want the case to be over.
Crusius has already been sentenced to 90 consecutive life terms At the federal level after declaring yourself guilty of hate crimes and arms charges.
If the guilt declaration agreement proceeds, families may give impact statements of the victim. Dozens of people He made emotional statements During a similar hearing in the Federal Court in 2023 that lasted three days.
Crusius, an abandonment from the Blanca Community University, was 21 when the police say that it led more than 700 miles (1,100 kilometers) to El Paso from his home near Dallas.
Not long after Publish a racist complaint online Warning of a Hispanic “invasion” opened fire with an AK style rifle inside and outside the store. Police arrested Crusius shortly after.
Joe Spencer, a defense lawyer in state and federal cases, said that Crusius was diagnosed with an schizoofective disorder that can be marked by hallucinations, delusions and humor changes and has suffered a weakening mental illness for most of his life.
“You are talking about an individual with a broken brain,” he said Thursday.
People killed in Walmart were an age of a 15 -year secondary athlete to major grandparents. They included immigrants, a retired municipal bus driver, a teacher, merchants, including a former iron worker and several Mexican citizens who crossed the United States border on routine shopping trips.
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Stengle contributed to this story of Dallas.
