April 21 (UPI) -- Patrick Crusius, the man who killed 23 people during a 2019 mass shooting at a Walmart in El Paso, pleaded guilty Monday to the crimes.
"After numerous conversations with our client, we believe he is competent to proceed," Joe Spencer, an attorney for Crusius, told the court and Judge Sam Medrano on the third floor of the Enrique Moreno County Courthouse in downtown El Paso, where the commissioner's room was used for extra space.
Crusius, 26, pleaded guilty to 23 counts of capital murder and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and was sentenced to life in jail without a possibility of parole for shooting 23 people and injuring dozens others on Aug. 3, 2019, in a racially motivated attack targeting the Hispanic population.
Last month, El Paso DA James Montoya withdrew his request seeking the death penalty for a guilty plea offer.
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A racist manifesto was found online as investigators initially looked at it as a hate crime.
Spencer argued that health professionals have said Crusius has a severe mental illness that involved "profound breaks from reality" and "deep delusional thinking.
He added Crusius became "consumed by extreme ideology found online" and latched on to "hateful rhetoric, particularly the dangerous and false narratives surrounding immigration" in response to President Donald Trump's words on immigration in his first term in rhetoric which seemingly has escalated in Trump's second term.
Victims and families held a statement hearing around 1 p.m local time after his plea and sentencing.
Crusius was previously sentenced in 2023 during his federal trial to 90 life terms after, likewise, pleading guilty, and agreeing to pay $5 million in restitution.
On Monday, the judge told Crusius that he traveled nine hours to a city that "would have welcomed you with open arms," saying how the perceived "mission" to slaughter "fathers, mothers, son and daughters" had failed.
"You did not divide this city, you strengthened it," Medrano, who has sat on the bench since 2001, said. "You did not silence its voice, you made it louder. You did not install fear, you inspired unity. El Paso rose stronger and braver."
