The mass shooter who killed 23 people in an El Paso Walmart in 2019, 26-year-old Patrick Crusius, is set to avoid the death penalty by accepting a plea deal. He was already sentenced to 90 consecutive life sentences after pleading guilty in 2023 to hate crimes and gun charges.
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According to the Daily Mail, after El Paso County District Attorney James Montoya offered the plea deal in March, Crusius will be accepting the deal on Monday, April 21. This comes after federal prosecutors took the death penalty off the table under the Biden administration. The decision behind this decision was never made clear, as per CNN.
DA Montoya, despite his plea deal offer, believes that Crusius deserves the death penalty. However, after meeting with the victims’ families, he determined that the plea deal was the way to go. Reportedly, the majority wanted to conclude the state court case and not extend it even further.
“The vast majority of them want this case over and done with as quickly as possible,” Montoya said. He added that if the state seeks the death penalty, the case could take years in hearings and appeals. “I could see a worst-case scenario where this would not go to trial until 2028 if we continued to seek the death penalty,” he added…