A state judge sentenced Patrick Crusius, a self-described white nationalist with a history of mental illness, to life in prison on Monday for killing 23 people and injuring 22 others in 2019 at a Walmart store in El Paso, one of the deadliest attacks on Hispanic civilians in American history.
Judge Sam Medrano Jr. handed down the sentence before hearing impact statements from family members and survivors, which were scheduled to be delivered Monday afternoon.
“You traveled nine hours to a city that would have welcomed you with open arms,” Judge Medrano told the gunman. “You brought not peace but hate. You came to inflict terror, to take innocent lives.”
“Your mission failed,” the judge continued. “You did not divide this city. You strengthened it.”
Mr. Crusius, looking disheveled in a white and orange prison jumpsuit, did not betray any emotions as the judge read his sentence, other than to say that he pleaded guilty to capital murder, with its automatic life sentence, and to 22 counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. He has no chance of parole.
He replied, “Yes, your honor” when asked if he accepted his fate.
The sentence was handed down in a large room, usually used by the county commission, that was converted to a courtroom to accommodate a large crowd. Some relatives of victims could be heard quietly crying.
James Montoya, the El Paso district attorney, read the names of the victims aloud as the gunman looked in his direction.
Mr. Crusius had already been sentenced by a federal judge last year to 90 consecutive life terms after he pleaded guilty to federal hate crimes charges. Then in late March, a newly elected district attorney in El Paso announced, after consulting with families of the victims, that he would not seek the death penalty for the state charges that were still pending.
That answered the last remaining question about Mr. Crusius’s fate. Still, the survivors and victims’ families are expected to finally have a chance to address the killer on Monday.
The gunman has been in a detention facility since the rampage on Aug. 3, 2019. As part of the plea agreement that spared his life, Mr. Crusius has waived his right to any potential appeals.
The sentencing in a courtroom in downtown El Paso, a Latino-majority city that long has been seen as the Ellis Island of the southwest, brought the dark saga to an end, after years of legal setbacks and red tape. The case had passed through the hands of four different prosecutors.
Mr. Crusius returned to court just as the anti-immigrant hatred that inspired him nearly six years ago was rising once again. President Trump’s aggressive campaign to deport millions of undocumented immigrants has amplified the word “invasion,” echoed in Mr. Crusius’s manifesto at the time of the massacre — now as a legal pretext for deportations and foreign incarceration with little to no due process, critics say.
Mr. Montoya said he hoped the hearings, which are expected to last a few days, will focus on the victims and not on the current political climate that has given new life to anti-immigration rhetoric.
“I have a lot to say about the defendant and the hateful ideology that motivated him,” the district attorney said. Without naming names, he said, “there are other public figures and elected officials that espouse and promote this ideology.”
Even so, he continued, “my sincere hope is that for the rest of this proceeding, this afternoon and the next few days and moving forward, that the focus can remain on the 23 lives that were taken from us far too soon, their family members and the survivors.”
Mr. Crusius’s lawyer, Joe Spencer, told The New York Times before the court hearing that Mr. Crusius drove 600 miles from the Dallas area to target Hispanics after being exposed to racist conspiracy theories and comments from Mr. Trump that immigrants coming to the United States were invaders.
Mr. Spencer echoed those words during the hearing.
“He has accepted responsibility for this horrific actions,” the lawyer told the judge. “He will never again walk free. Patrick will leave prison only in a coffin on God’s time.”
He settled on a Walmart near a major highway as the site of his attack after he heard everyone around him there speaking in Spanish.
During the shooting, the gunman stalked shoppers and employees in the aisles and behind the cash registers with a military-style rifle. The victims included a couple who had been married for 70 years, a 15-year-old boy who had told his family he dreamed of joining the Border Patrol, and a young couple who were shielding their infant son.
The gunman told police after his arrest that he had wanted to kill Latinos because “they were immigrating to the United States,” and that El Paso was his target because it was a Latino-majority city with strong cultural ties to the Mexican city of Ciudad Juárez, just across the border.
Edgar Sandoval covers Texas for The Times, with a focus on the Latino community and the border with Mexico. He is based in San Antonio.
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