EL PASO, Texas (AP) — A white gunman who killed 23 people in a racist attack on Hispanic shoppers at a Walmart in a Texas border city was sentenced Friday to 90 consecutive life sentences but could still face more punishment, including the death penalty.
Patrick Crusius, 24, pleaded guilty earlier this year to nearly 50 federal hate crime charges in the 2019 mass shooting in El Paso, making it one of the U.S. government's largest hate crime cases.
Crusius, wearing a jumpsuit and shackles, did not speak during the hearing and showed no reaction as the sentence was read. U.S. District Judge David Guaderrama recommended that Crusius serve his sentence at a maximum security prison in Colorado.
Crusius still faces a separate trial in a Texas court that could end with him getting the death penalty for carrying out one of the deadliest mass shootings in U.S. history.
As Crusius was led from the courtroom, the son of one of the victims shouted at him from the galley.
"We'll be seeing you again, coward," yelled Dean Reckard, whose mother, Margie Reckard, was slain in the attack. "No apologies, no nothing."
Police say Crusius drove more than 700 miles from his home near Dallas to target Hispanics with an AK-style rifle inside and outside the store. Moments before the attack began, Crusius posted a racist screed online that warned of a Hispanic "invasion" of Texas.
In the years since the shooting, Republicans have described migrants crossing the southern U.S. border as an "invasion," waving off critics who say the rhetoric fuels anti-immigrant views and violence.
Crusius pleaded guilty in February after federal prosecutors took the death penalty off the table. But Texas prosecutors have said they will try to put Crusius on death row when he stands trial in state court. That trial date has not yet been set.
Joe Spencer, Crusius' attorney, told the judge before the sentencing that his client has a "broken brain."
"Patrick's thinking is at odds with reality … resulting in delusional thinking," Spencer said.
Crusius became alarmed by his own violent thoughts, Spencer said, and he once left a job at a movie theater because of them. He said Crusius once searched online to look for ways to address his mental health, and he dropped out of a community college near Dallas because of his struggles.
Spencer said Crusius had arrived in El Paso without a specific target in mind before winding up at the Walmart.
"Patrick acted with his broken brain cemented in delusions," Spencer said.
The sentencing in El Paso followed two days of impact statements from relatives of the victims, including citizens of Mexico and a German national. In addition to the dead, more than two dozen people were injured and numerous others were severely traumatized as they hid or fled.
One by one, family members used their first opportunity since the shooting to directly address Crusius, describing how their lives have been upended by grief and pain. Some forgave Crusius. One man displayed photographs of his slain father and insisted that the gunman look at them.
Bertha Benavides' husband of 34 years, Arturo, was among those killed.
"You left children without their parents, you left spouses without their spouses, and we still need them," she told Crusius.
Crusius' family did not appear in the courtroom during the sentencing phase.
The attack was the deadliest of a dozen mass shootings in the U.S. linked to hate crimes since 2006, according to a database compiled by The Associated Press, USA Today and Northeastern University.
Before the shooting, Crusius had appeared consumed by the nation's immigration debate, tweeting #BuildtheWall and posts that praised then-President Donald Trump's hardline border policies. He went further in his rant posted before the attack, sounding warnings that Hispanics were going to take over the government and economy.
Ian Hanna, an assistant U.S. attorney who prosecuted the government's case, said Crusius had embraced the "insidious lie" that America only belonged to white people.
"He wanted to eliminate a class of people," Hanna said. "It was a strike at the very essence of what makes this community so special."
Amaris Vega's aunt was killed in the attack and her mother narrowly survived a softball-sized wound to the chest. In court, Vega railed at Crusius' "pathetic, sorry manifesto" that promised to rid Texas of Hispanics.
"But guess what? You didn't. You failed," she told him in court Thursday. "We are still here and we are not going anywhere. And for four years you have been stuck in a city full of Hispanics. ... So let that sink in."
The people who were killed ranged in age from a 15-year-old high school athlete to several elderly grandparents. They included immigrants, a retired city bus driver, teachers, tradesmen including a former iron worker, and several Mexican nationals who had crossed the U.S. border on routine shopping trips.
Two teenage girls recounted their narrow escape from Crusius' rampage as they participated in a fundraiser for their youth soccer team outside the store and said they are still fearful in public.
Margaret Juarez, whose 90-year-old father was slain in the attack and whose mother was wounded but survived, said she found it ironic that Crusius will spend his life in prison among inmates from racial and ethnic minorities. Others in the courtroom applauded as she celebrated their liberty.
"Swim in the waters of prison," she told Crusius. "Now we're going to enjoy the sunshine. … We still have our freedom, in our country."
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Weber reported from Austin.
