Nearly six years after he killed 23 people and wounded 22 others in an attack he said was meant to stop “the Hispanic invasion of Texas,” the gunman in the El Paso Walmart mass shooting pleaded guilty to state charges and was sentenced to life in prison. The guilty plea came after El Paso District Attorney James Montoya decided not to seek the death penalty.
The plea and sentencing hearing in April 2025 was emotionally charged, as relatives of those killed talked about what was lost. Some angrily attacked the gunman, and a political viewpoint they believe drove his actions. Some expressed forgiveness. Most remarkably, two women were given permission by the judge to hug the gunman in a stunning act of forgiveness.
Throughout 2025, El Paso Matters documented the final chapters of a yearslong legal saga that followed the 2019 racist shooting that forever reshaped our community.
A plea hearing for Patrick Crusius has been set for April 21.
The judge wept and others in the courtroom sobbed as a woman who lost her brother in the 2019 El Paso Walmart mass shooting hugged the gunman after her emotional impact statement.
Almost three dozen people directly affected by the attack read statements in court about how the horrific assault affected them and their families.