Mourners gather in 2019 a memorial for victims of the El Paso Walmart shooting. Wednesday marks the four-year anniversary of the tragedy, which claimed 23 lives. Credit: Wikimedia Commons / Ruperto Miller

The man accused of carrying out a racially motivated attack that took the lives of 23 largely Latino Walmart shoppers in El Paso six years ago will spend the rest of his life behind bars.

On Monday, more than 150 people gathered at an El Paso courthouse to watch Patrick Crusius, 26, enter a guilty plea to state capital murder charges and 22 counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. The charges are related to one of the deadliest mass shootings in U.S. history.

“On Aug. 2, 3019, you traveled nine hours to a city that would have welcomed you with open arms, but you brought hate,” 409th District Court Judge Sam Medrano said, addressing Crusius. “Now, as you begin to spend your life in prison, know your mission failed. You didn’t make this community weaker, you made it stronger.”

The plea was part of a deal that allowed Crusius to avoid the death penalty in exchange for a life sentence without the possibility of parole.

On the day of the shooting, Crusius drove nearly 700 miles from Allen to El Paso to kill as many Latinos as possible.

Earlier this month, Crusius’ defence attorney Joe Spencer, for the first time blamed President Donald Trump’s heated rhetoric about migrants for his client’s actions.

“He thought he had to stop the invasion because that’s what his president was telling him, which is just not rational,” Spencer said.

“I absolutely believe that words matter, and especially someone who’s a … president of the United States,” the attorney added. “When he makes a statement like that, he should be very careful of how it’s going to be received, not only by those of us that are rational, but by those of us that are not.”

Crusius’ sentence will run concurrently with the 90 consecutive life sentences he already received after pleading guilty to federal hate crime charges in 2023.

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This article appears in Apr 16-29, 2025.

Michael Karlis is a multimedia journalist at the San Antonio Current, whose coverage in print and on social media focuses on local and state politics. He is a graduate of American University in Washington,...