By JAMIE STENGLE
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.
“I could see a worst-case scenario where this would not go to trial until 2028 if we continued to seek the death penalty,” he said.
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.
“I’m just glad it’s over,” said Elise Hoffmann-Taus, whose father, Alexander Hoffmann was among those killed. “This is the outcome I wanted.”
Republican Gov. Greg Abbott also said Crusius deserved to die.
“I’ve heard about it. I think the guy does deserve the death penalty, to be honest,” Abbott said Tuesday about the announcement. “Any shooting like that is what capital punishment is for.”
Montoya, a Democrat, took office in January after defeating a Republican incumbent who was appointed by Abbott.
Crusius, who is white, was 21 years old and had dropped out of community college when police say he drove more than 700 miles from his home near Dallas to El Paso.
Moments after posting a racist screed online that warned of a Hispanic “invasion” of the state, he opened fire with an AK-style rifle inside and outside the store.
Before the shooting, Crusius appears to have been consumed by the immigration debate, posting online in support of building the border wall and other messages praising the hardline border policies of President Donald Trump, who was in his first term at the time. He went further in the rant he posted before the attack, saying Hispanics were going to take over the government and economy.
In the years since the shooting, Republicans have called migrants crossing the southern border an “invasion” and dismissed criticism that such rhetoric fuels anti-immigrant views and violence.
In the U.S. government’s case, Crusius received a life sentence for each of the 90 charges against him, half of which were classified as hate crimes. Then-Attorney General Merrick Garland said after the sentencing that “no one in this country should have to live in fear of hate-fueled violence.”
One of his attorneys told the judge before the sentencing that his client had a “broken brain” and his thinking was “at odds with reality.”
Federal prosecutors did not formally explain their decision not to seek the death penalty, but they did acknowledge that Crusius suffered from schizoaffective disorder, which can be marked by hallucinations, delusions and mood swings.
The people who were killed ranged in age from a 15-year-old high school athlete to several 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.
In 2023, Crusius agreed to pay more than $5 million to his victims. Court records showed that his attorneys and the Justice Department reached an agreement over the restitution amount, which was then approved by a U.S. district judge. There was no indication that he had significant assets.
Associated Press writer Nadia Lathan contributed from Austin, Texas.