Texas prosecutors will no longer seek the death penalty against the gunman who killed 23 people in a mass shooting at an El Paso Walmart six years ago, the local district attorney announced on Tuesday.
The gunman, a self-described white nationalist, had previously been sentenced to 90 consecutive life terms after pleading guilty to federal hate crimes in the attack, one of the deadliest on Latinos in U.S. history. At the time, federal prosecutors also said they would not seek the death penalty.
On Tuesday, the El Paso district attorney said his office had changed course after speaking with the families of the victims.
“It was very clear as we met with the families, one by one, that there is a strong and overwhelming consensus that just wanted this case over with, that wanted finality in the court process,” said the district attorney, James Montoya, a Democrat.
In exchange, the shooter, Patrick Crusius, is expected to plead guilty to capital murder and be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, Mr. Montoya said. Mr. Crusius will also waive his right to any potential appeals as part of the plea agreement.
Mr. Montoya is the fourth prosecutor to have been assigned to the state case. He promised during his campaign last year to seek the death penalty, and said on Tuesday that he still believed the shooter deserved it.
But the families’ wishes combined with Mr. Montoya’s lack of “great confidence” that the state’s trial would have remained in El Paso — because of the unlikelihood of finding impartial jurors, thus prolonging the case — led him to instead pursue a life sentence, he said.
The shooting occurred on Aug. 3, 2019. Prosecutors say the gunman traveled to El Paso from Allen, a city near Dallas. He attacked the Walmart store in a popular commercial district near the Cielo Vista Mall, a retail complex with dozens of restaurants and stores that is usually busy on weekends.
During the shooting, the gunman stalked shoppers and employees in the aisles and behind the cash registers with an AK-47-style rifle. The victims included a couple who had been married for 70 years, a 15-year-old boy who had dreamed of joining the Border Patrol and a young mother who was shielding her infant son. Twenty-two people were also injured.
After his arrest, the gunman told the police 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.
“Patrick acted with his broken brain centered in delusions,” the gunman’s lawyer, Joe Spencer, said during his federal trial. “We hope that we have provided some answers to what feels uncomprehensible.”
At a separate news conference on Tuesday, Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, told reporters that he believed the gunman deserved the death penalty. “A heinous shooting like that is what capital punishment is for,” he said.
The gunman is scheduled to be back in court for his state sentencing on April 21.
Edgar Sandoval contributed reporting.
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