El Paso gunman Patrick Crusius sentenced to 90 life sentences for Walmart shooting

EL PASO (CBSNewsTexas.com/CNN) - The gunman who killed 23 people and injured more than two dozen others in a 2019 mass shooting at a Walmart in El Paso was sentenced Friday to 90 consecutive life sentences. This comes after days of 24-year-old Patrick Crusius listening to victim impact statements in a federal sentencing hearing. 

"We are hopeful today's sentence brings a sense of justice, but the memories of the victims and our support for their families and the survivors doesn't end here," FBI Director Christopher Wray told CBS News. "FBI employees are members of the communities we serve, and in El Paso, we will continue to help our neighbors and friends heal for as long as it takes. When anyone in our communities is threatened with violence or hate, the FBI will work with them side by side to fight for justice and we will hold the perpetrators accountable."

Victim impact statements

Since his sentencing hearing began Wednesday, Crusius has faced dozens of victims' loved ones and survivors who shared anguished victim impact statements and imparted the lasting effects of the shooter's actions.

Some victims' family members became tearful as they confronted Crusius for the first time in court, vilifying him as an "ignorant coward," an "evil parasite," a "monster" and "a racist."

Among the 36 people who addressed Crusius on Wednesday and Thursday was a minor who survived the rampage. Wearing an "El Paso Strong" T-shirt, the girl struggled to speak between sobs as she described her terror and enduring pain.

"I used to be a happy, normal teenager, until a coward chose to use violence against the innocent," she said. "I'm no longer as happy as I used to be."

A teenage soccer player identified in court as G.A. also recounted the horror of the shooting. "I still remember everything so clearly, even though I have tried to erase it from my memory," they said.

The federal sentence, however, may not be sufficient justice for some families, said the father of Jordan Anchondo, who died alongside her husband while protecting their infant during the shooting.

"These lives will never be brought back to life, so how is that justice? And who's to say what justice is?" said Paul Jamrowski when asked about the sentence Wednesday.

A potential death sentence looms in the separate state trial, which El Paso District Attorney Bill Hicks anticipates will be held sometime in 2024 or 2025, but the date has yet to be set by a judge, according to his spokesperson Jennifer Cortes.

'Are you sorry for what you did?'

Crusius entered the courtroom with shackled hands and feet on Wednesday and Thursday and sat in silence for much of the proceedings as survivors and victims' families detailed their lasting pain.

But the shooter engaged a relative of a victim for the first time on Thursday, motioning with his head in response to questions asked by Dean Reckard, who lost his mother, Margie.

After Reckard asked the shooter if he sleeps "good at night," Crusius responded by shaking his head, "No."

"You haven't shown signs of remorse," Reckard continued. "You just wanted to be a copycat?"

Again, Crusius shook his head.

"Are you a White supremacist?" Reckard asked.

The shooter shook his head once more.

"Are you sorry for what you did?"

Crusius then nodded, "Yes."

At least two speakers admonished Crusius for apparently rolling his eyes at them during their statements.

"You can roll your eyes if you want to. It doesn't bother me," remarked Raymond Attaguile, whose brother-in-law David Johnson was killed while back-to-school shopping with his granddaughter.

Johnson's granddaughter also interrupted her remarks to reprimand Crusius, saying, "You can roll your eyes; you can smile; you can smirk," before continuing her emotional recounting of the events that day.

Crusius shook his head in response to both admonishments, seemingly denying the actions.

On Thursday, as the hearing was ending, Crusius appeared to be red-eyed and struggling to hold back emotions.

"Take it, feel it. Don't f**king cry. Your tears mean nothing to me," Karla Romero, whose mother was killed, told Crusius at one point.

'You deserve to suffer in jail'

Several of the speakers fondly remembered their slain loved ones as they faced Crusius, becoming emotional as they stood just feet from the shooter.

"You killed my father in such a cowardly way," Thomas Hoffman said in court Wednesday. "He was not a racist like you."

Hoffman's father, Alexander Hoffman, was killed in the 2019 shooting. He was an engineer who migrated to Mexico from Germany in the 1980s, his daughter Elis said in a statement through an attorney. She described her father as a "gentle giant with a big heart."

"You're an ignorant coward and you deserve to suffer in jail and then burn in hell," Thomas Hoffman said. "You are an evil parasite that is nothing without a weapon."

"I hope God one day finds the heart to forgive you for what you've done," Raul Loya, who is related to one of the victims, said before crying.

Johnson's daughter, Stephanie Melendez, also addressed Crusius in court Wednesday. Melendez has said Johnson died shielding his wife Kathy and their 9-year-old granddaughter, Kaitlyn, from a hail of bullets.

"I want you to remember my voice. I speak for all the daughters who lost their fathers," Melendez said. "In your act of hatred, you stole a good man from this world."

She added, "He will be remembered but you will not."

The plea agreement

The gunman agreed to accept 90 consecutive life sentences after prosecutors said they would not pursue the death penalty, although they were when the gunman initially pleaded not guilty. He faced 23 counts of hate crimes resulting in death, 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 attempt to kill and 22 counts of use of a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence. Before the judge announced the sentence, Crusius' defense attorney delivered an allocution - a defendant's formal address to the court - on behalf of the shooter to the El Paso courtroom.

An arrest warrant noted that when surrendering to officers in 2019, Crusius said "I'm the shooter." The gunman has described himself as a White nationalist and admitted to shooting shoppers "because of the actual and perceived Hispanic national origin of the people," according to Justice Department documents. Prosecutors say he published a screed titled "An Inconvenient Truth" shortly before driving 11 hours from Allen to El Paso, in which he said he was motivated to kill Hispanics because he was "simply defending my country from cultural and ethnic replacement brought on by the invasion."  

State trial

For Crusius, Friday's sentencing is just the beginning. He is also facing a state capital murder charge, which he has pleaded not guilty to, in Texas that could result in the death penalty. He will go into state custody later this fall, likely in October, following federal restitution proceedings in late September, according to the El Paso District Attorney's Office.

His state trial is expected sometime in 2024 or 2025, according to Jennifer Cortes, a spokesperson for District Attorney Bill Hicks. The trial date will be set by Judge Sam Medrano of the 409th District Court in El Paso.