The gunman who killed 23 people at an El Paso Walmart was sentenced to 90 consecutive life sentences in federal prison Friday.
The punishment comes nearly four years after Patrick Crusius, 24, drove 10 hours from Allen, Texas to El Paso to gun down Hispanics in an attempt to ward off what he called a “Hispanic invasion of Texas” in an online posting.
Federal district judge David Guaderrama handed down the punishment after two days of victim impact statements where relatives of the victims unleashed on the gunman, calling him a gutless racist who upended the lives of dozens of El Pasoans solely for living in a city that is predominantly Hispanic.
Crusius pleaded guilty on Feb. 8 to 90 federal hate crime and firearm charges. Part of the agreement between his attorneys and prosecutors included accepting the 90 life sentences – one for each count in the indictment, according to the Department of Justice. Guaderrama said he’d recommend Crusius serve his time at the super-maximum security, or Supermax, detention facility in Colorado.
When Crusius was being led out of the room, one of the family members of the vicitms shouted at the gunman: “We will see you again, coward!”
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