The 24-year-old white supremacist convicted for the 2019 mass shooting at an El Paso Walmart, was sentenced to 90 consecutive life terms in prison. The shooting, which claimed 23 lives and injured many, saw victims from El Paso, Juárez, and Germany. The murderer was handed his sentence by Senior U.S. District Judge David C. Guaderrama at the end of a three-day hearing.
The federal court’s ruling was met with strong reactions from the victim’s families. Dean Reckard, who lost his mother Margie Reckard in the massacre, said defiantly to the murderer, “We will be seeing you again, you coward. We will see you again.”
Judge Guaderrama ordered the multiple life sentences to be served at the ADX Florence supermax federal prison in Colorado, home to some of the country’s most notorious criminals. The timeframe for the murderer’s transfer has not been confirmed, with the possibility of him remaining in El Paso County Jail until the Texas state case against him is resolved.
During the trial, the murderer’s defense team suggested that their client suffered from a mental disorder, schizoaffective. However, federal prosecutor Ian Martinez Hanna dismissed this as an excuse, labeling the incident as a “cold, calculated scheme targeting immigrants and Hispanics”. Hanna further stressed that the mass shooting was not a crime of passion or accident, but rather a deliberate act of violence.
Defense attorney Joe Spencer argued that the murderer, who reportedly heard voices and experienced hallucinations, acted with a “broken brain.” Still, this claim did little to console the victims’ families. Francisco Javier Rodriguez, father of the youngest victim, said, “Nothing he can say will bring my son back.”
While more than 50 people attended the sentencing, others watched the proceeding from an overflow room. The murderer did not address the court before the sentence was announced.
On the day of the shooting, the murderer had driven over 700 miles from Allen, Texas, to El Paso and targeted the Walmart with a semi-automatic rifle. After shooting people in the parking lot, he moved into the store, escalating the terror. He confessed to the crime on surrendering to the Texas Department of Public Safety.
The murderer, who posted a racist diatribe online minutes before the shooting, later admitted to targeting Hispanics. He pleaded guilty to 90 federal charges in February, including hate crimes and use of a firearm to commit murder.
The sentencing closes the federal criminal case against the murderer. However, the legal journey isn’t over, as attention now shifts to the state of Texas’ case against him, where he faces capital murder and aggravated assault charges. El Paso County District Attorney Bill Hicks has stated that his office still seeks the death penalty against the murderer.
