Man pleads guilty to hate crimes in El Paso massacre

A Texas man who fatally shot 23 people and injured dozens more at a Walmart store in El Paso in 2019 pleaded guilty on Wednesday to federal hate crimes and weapons charges in connection with the deadliest anti-Latino attack in modern United States history.

Lawyers for the gunman, Patrick Crusius, said last month that he would change his plea to guilty days after federal prosecutors notified the court that they would not seek the death penalty. He has agreed to accept a sentence of 90 consecutive life terms, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Texas. Crusius is to be formally sentenced in June.

Crusius, 24, still faces trial on state capital murder charges, for which he could receive the death penalty.

He appeared in U.S. District Court in El Paso on Wednesday afternoon, where he pleaded guilty to all 90 federal charges that he faced, including 45 hate crimes.

“White nationalist-fueled violence has no place in our society today,” Assistant U.S. Attorney General Kristen Clarke said in a statement afterward. “By pleading guilty, the defendant has admitted that he murdered innocent people based on their national origin and targeted Hispanics. The Justice Department will continue to use every tool at its disposal to combat hate crimes, hold perpetrators accountable, and seek justice for the victims and survivors.”

Joe Spencer, a lawyer for Crusius, did not immediately respond to calls seeking comment Wednesday, but he told The El Paso Times that the guilty plea had come as a relief.

“We're glad that it's finally done, and he's glad that it's finally done,” Spencer said. “There are no winners in this case.”

Crusius, who is white, drove all night from his home in Allen, Texas, a suburb of Dallas, to a Walmart Supercenter in El Paso, a Hispanic-majority border city, on Aug. 3, 2019. He posted an anti-immigrant manifesto minutes before entering the store, where he stalked shoppers down the aisles with a semi-automatic rifle and ammunition that he had purchased online, according to a federal indictment.

“This attack is a response to the Hispanic invasion of Texas,” Crusius said in the 2,300-word manifesto.