Feds won't seek death penalty for El Paso Walmart shooter Patrick Crusius
EL PASO, Texas (CBSDFW.COM/AP) — Federal prosecutors won't seek the death penalty for Patrick Crusius, the man accused of killing 23 people in a racially-motivated shooting at an El Paso Walmart in 2019.
The U.S. Department of Justice disclosed the decision not to pursue capital punishment against Crusius in a one-sentence notice filed with the federal court in El Paso Tuesday.
The 24-year-old is accused of targeting Mexicans during the mass shooting and is charged with federal hate crimes and firearms violations and has pleaded not guilty.
Federal prosecutors did not explain in their court filing why they won't seek the death penalty; However, the Dallas-area native could still face potential execution if convicted in state court. The decision comes weeks after Jaime Esparza, the former district attorney in El Paso, took over as U.S. attorney for West Texas.
Esparza said when he was district attorney that he would pursue the death penalty in Crusius' case. A spokesman for Esparza's office referred questions to the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., where another spokesman declined to comment. Lawyers for Cruisus did not immediately respond to requests for comment. His case is set for trial in federal court in January 2024.
Although the federal and state cases have progressed along parallel tracks, it is now unclear when Crusius might face trial on state charges.
The district attorney who had been leading the state case, Yvonne Rosales, resigned in November over accusations of incompetence involving hundreds of cases in El Paso and slowing down the case against Crusius. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott last month appointed a new district attorney to "restore confidence" in the local criminal justice system.
Crusius attended Liberty High School in Frisco but later transferred to Plano Senior High School, where he graduated in 2017.
In the 2017 Plano Senior High yearbook, a photo of Crusius—where he appears to be in a crime investigation class—was captioned, "It is interesting to learn about how the world of law enforcement works."
Crusius also attended Collin College from the fall of 2017 to the spring of 2019.
