A federal judge on Friday sentenced a white supremacist to 90 consecutive life sentences for a 2019 shooting, in whichkilled 23 people and injured 22 others at a Texas Walmart when their target was Hispanics, local media reported.
The sentence handed down by federal judge David Guaderrama in El Paso adheres to a February plea agreement in which shooter Patrick Crusius, 24, pleaded guilty and accepted 90 consecutive life sentences to avoid the federal death penalty.
Crusius did not speak in court. His attorney Joe Spencer made a statement on his behalf that said the shooter suffered from mental illness which led him to execute gunfight. The prosecutors They disputed that claim and They said that Crusius knew what he was doing when he carried out the massacre.
His federal sentence came after two days of testimony, some of the 22 injured survivors and relatives of the 23 dead, who delivered shock statements in the presence of the shooter.
Prosecutors said the shooter drove more than 1,000 km overnight from suburban Dallas to the border city of El Paso, carrying out the massacre on August 3, 2019, with a Romanian derivative of the AK-47 and hollow point ammunition.