Texas prosecutors will no longer pursue the death penalty in 2019 Walmart attack
EL PASO, Texas – Texas prosecutors said Tuesday they will not pursue the death penalty in the case against a man charged with killing 23 people and injuring dozens in a racially charged shooting at an El Paso Walmart in 2019.
Patrick Crucius, 26, is charged with carrying out the mass shooting that ripped through the heart of the Texas border community on Aug. 3, 2019, and gripped the nation’s attention. Federal court documents state the gunmen targeted Hispanic shoppers, who he claimed were invading the United States.
El Paso District Attorney James Montoya explained the decision to reporters Tuesday, a change that marks an about-face in the state’s approach but comes, Montoya said, as many family members of victims said they want to see the case closed, even if that meant foregoing a death sentence.
"This was not a decision that was reached lightly or hastily," Montoya said. "This is something that has been ongoing, a discussion that has been ongoing for several months. It's something that I personally have thought about, very much so."
Under the offer, prosecutors said Crucius is expected to waive his appellate rights and plead guilty to capital murder to avoid the death penalty. He will be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, according to prosecutors.
'No more hearings. No more appeals'
Montoya’s announcement comes as the high-profile case languished in the state district court system for over five years. No trial date had ever been announced, and Montoya estimated that pursuing the death penalty could set the case as far back as 2028.
Mounting delays weighed heavily on the El Paso community, Montoya said in a statement.
"Continual delays due to the handling of this case before I arrived in office have left them in limbo," he added. "Now, no one in this community will ever have to hear the perpetrator’s name ever again. No more hearings. No more appeals. He will die in prison.”
Joe Spencer, the gunman's attorney, declined to comment because of a gag order that prevents anyone directly connected to the case from discussing it publicly.
The shooter already faces a federal sentence that will keep him locked up in a supermax prison in Colorado for the rest of his life. A hearing in the state’s case scheduled for April 1 is expected to be canceled.
Hearings set for April 21 and 22 are expected to be changed from motion hearings to plea hearings, a person familiar with the case told the El Paso Times, part of the USA TODAY Network.
In 2023, Crucius admitted in federal court to carrying out the attack. He pleaded guilty to 90 federal charges associated with the mass shooting, and senior U.S. District Judge David C. Guaderrama sentenced him to 90 consecutive life sentences.
Guaderrama later ordered him to serve the sentences at the ADX Florence supermax federal prison near Florence, Colorado. The prison currently houses some of the notorious criminals in U.S. history, including Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and Oklahoma City bomber Terry Nichols.
Residents from El Paso, Mexico and Germany were all killed in the Borderland massacre.
Deadly 2019 El Paso shooting
On the morning of the shooting, authorities said Crucius drove 700 miles from Allen, Texas, to El Paso, where he parked in front of a Walmart store. He then exited his vehicle carrying a GP WASR-10 semiautomatic rifle – a Romanian-made variant of the AK-47 assault rifle – loaded with 7.62x39mm hollow-point ammunition, court documents state.
According to authorities, Crucius then began shooting innocent people in the parking lot before moving into the store; 23 people were killed and 22 others were injured in the 2019 massive attack.
Crucius then fled in his vehicle but minutes later pulled over at a nearby intersection, got out of his car, and surrendered to a Texas Department of Public Safety trooper responding to reports of the mass shooting. "I'm the shooter," Crucius told the trooper, according to court documents.
Crucius later confessed to law enforcement that he targeted Hispanics to dissuade them from coming to the United States. He said, "They (Mexicans and other Hispanics) were to blame" and "he was trying to defend his country," according to federal prosecutors.
Minutes before the shooting, he posted a racist diatribe online outlining his hatred for Hispanics and his motive for committing one of the deadliest shootings in U.S. history. Among the 90 federal charges he pleaded guilty to in connection with the shooting were 23 counts of hate crimes resulting in death.
He also pleaded guilty to 23 counts of use of a firearm to commit murder during and in relation to a crime of violence, 22 counts of hate crimes involving an attempt to kill, and 22 counts of use of a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence.
The state's case progressed glacially
Montoya, who was elected in November after campaigning on a promise to pursue the death penalty in the case, said he changed his approach once he began hearing from family members who have seen the case get delayed time and time again.
“It was very clear as we met with the families, one by one, that there was a strong and overwhelming consensus that (they) just wanted this case over with," Montoya said.
The sentiment was not unanimous. Montoya said some families wanted to see a death sentence pursued regardless of how long it took. He added that his office fielded phone calls following Monday's announcement that expressed "confusion" and "betrayal" over the decision.
Pursuing the death penalty, he said, could have resulted in the case stretching out over several more years. And even then, a death sentence would not be guaranteed.
"Realistically, the January 2026 time frame (for a trial) was not realistic," he said. "I think we were looking at late 2026, 2027. I could see a worst-case scenario where this wouldn't go to trial until 2028 if we continued to seek the death penalty."
Contributing: Michael Loria, USA TODAY
Aaron Martinez covers the criminal justice system, and Adam Powell covers government and politics for the El Paso Times, part of the USA TODAY Network.