W’mart slaughter guilt plea

The man accused of targeting Hispanics when he allegedly killed 23 people at a Texas Walmart plans to plead guilty to federal hatecrime charges, court papers reveal.

Lawyers representing Patrick Crusius informed the feds over the weekend of his intent to change his plea to guilty in a court filing obtained by El Paso Matters.

The motion was filed days after federal prosecutors announced they would not seek the death penalty for Crusius. The 24-yearold allegedly drove 10 hours from the Dallas suburb of Allen to El Paso to hunt Hispanics in the 2019 massacre.

He told investigators he cased the busy super-center store near the US-Mexico border to make sure it was filled with Hispanics. Surveillance video showed him entering the store with an AK-47, murdering 23 shoppers, Aug. 3, 2019.

The case against the suspect includes a hate-filled manifesto he allegedly posted online before the attack. The then-21-year-old complained of a “Hispanic invasion of Texas,” writing that he was “simply defending my country from cultural and ethnic replacement brought on by an invasion,” prosecutors claim.