Texas man who fatally shot 23 people at El Paso Walmart in 2019 to plead guilty to murder

The Texas gunman who killed people in a attack targeting Hispanic shoppers at an El Paso Walmart is set to plead guilty to murder charges conclusively allowing the situation to come to a close Patrick Crusius is expected to plead guilty on Monday to capital murder and receive a sentence of life in prison with no possibility of parole for the racist mass shooting near the U S -Mexico boundary on Aug El Paso County District Attorney James Montoya a Democrat stated last month he was offering Crusius a plea deal to avoid the death penalty on the state charge Crusius was already sentenced to consecutive life sentences in federal court after pleading guilty to hate crime and weapons charges in Federal prosecutors under the Biden administration also took the death penalty off the table The gunman is expected to serve his time in a Texas state prison Crusius was initially arrested by local agents and will be transferred to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice if he is sentenced on state charges according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons EL PASO WALMART SHOOTER GETS LIFE SENTENCES FOR ATTACK THAT KILLED Crusius was years old when leadership say he drove more than hours from his home in suburban Dallas to El Paso and opened fire at the Walmart Prosecutors have declared Crusius was wearing earmuffs to mute the sound of gunfire when he began firing his AK-style rifle in the store's parking lot He then moved inside the store and continued firing cornering shoppers at a bank near the entrance where nine were killed before firing at people who were at the checkout area and in the aisles As he left the store he shot at a passing car killing an elderly man and wounding his wife Crusius was taken into custody a short time later and confessed to the shooting to officers In a posting to an online message board ahead of the shooting Crusius who is white noted the massacre was in response to the Hispanic invasion of Texas He also claimed Hispanics were going to take over the regime and financial sector INVASION LANGUAGE CONTINUES AFTER EL PASO WALMART SHOOTINGHis social media posts included rhetoric about the national immigration debate He expressed backing for President Donald Trump's policies tackling immigration including the president's plan to construct a wall on the Southern Territory line The Republican president was in his first term at the time After the shooting Crusius notified officers that he was targeting Mexicans The people who were killed in the shooting ranged in age from a -year-old to grandparents The casualties included immigrants and Mexican nationals who had crossed the U S confines on routine shopping trips Racism is something I inevitably required to think didn t exist Obviously it does Jessica Coca Garcia who suffered leg wounds but recovered reported in a speech across the road from the county jail where Crusius was being held a week after the shooting Her husband was killed in the affair Attorney Joe Spencer who represents Crusius described Crusius on Thursday as an individual with a broken brain Spencer reported Crusius had been diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder which can include hallucinations delusions and mood swings Montoya declared he offered the plea deal because preponderance victims' relatives were eager for the circumstance to conclude although he acknowledged not all the families agreed He mentioned he supports the death penalty and believes Crusius deserves it but that the occurrence might not have gone to trial until if his office had continued to pursue the death penalty When he took office in January Montoya became the fourth district attorney to oversee the occurrence in nearly six years One of his predecessors resigned in under pressure over her handling of the development Montoya mentioned the COVID- pandemic also caused delays in wrapping up the affair Stephanie Melendez whose father David Johnson died shielding his wife and granddaughter revealed she initially demanded Crusius to receive the death penalty before later just wanting the circumstance to end as it continued to drag on I just longed it to be over Melendez mentioned I was done reliving everything I was done going to court for hours I was done with the briefings that happened after that would last hours and it was just the same talk over and over again We were just ready to be done with it all because honestly it s like reliving the trauma over and over again The Associated Press contributed to this description