(DENVER) – The shooter who killed five people and injured 19 others at a Colorado Springs nightclub pleaded guilty to 50 federal hate crime charges on Tuesday.
Anderson Lee Aldrich, 24, is already serving a life sentence after pleading guilty to state charges in the 2022 shooting last year. Federal prosecutors focused on proving that the attack on Club Q – a sanctuary for LGBTQ+ people in the largely conservative city – was premeditated and fueled by prejudice.
Aldrich pleaded guilty under a deal with prosecutors that allows the shooter to avoid the death penalty and instead be sentenced to additional life sentences for hate crimes, plus a total of 190 years for possession charges gun and other charges.
Defense attorneys in the state case, who said their client is non-binary and uses they/them pronouns, argued that Aldrich was high on cocaine and medication at the time. In phone calls from prison to The Associated Press last year, Aldrich did not respond directly when asked whether the attack was motivated by hate, saying only that it is “completely wrong” and did not reveal a motivation to the AP or the state. court.
U.S. District Judge Charlotte Sweeney, the first openly gay federal judge in Colorado, said she would hear testimony from victims before deciding whether to accept the sentencing agreement.
Less than a month before the shooting, Aldrich coordinated a spam email campaign against a former work supervisor who is gay, according to recent court filings filed by prosecutors. They also accuse Aldrich of publicizing someone else’s manifesto, which included racist and anti-Semitic statements and falsely claimed that being transgender is a mental illness.
Aldrich spent more than $9,000 on gun-related purchases from at least 56 vendors between September 2020 and the Nov. 19, 2022, attack, according to new evidence cited by prosecutors.
Investigators found a hand-drawn map of Club Q with an entry and exit point marked inside Aldrich’s apartment, evidence that was also presented in state court. There was also a black folder of training materials titled “How to Deal with an Active Shooter.”
Defense attorneys in the state case, who said their client is non-binary and uses they/them pronouns, argued that Aldrich was high on cocaine and medication at the time.
In a series of phone calls from prison to The Associated Press last year, Aldrich did not respond directly when asked whether the attack was motivated by hate, saying only that it was “completely wrong.” Aldrich did not reveal his motive to the AP or the state court and refused to speak during the sentencing.
The fact that Aldrich is non-binary is a claim rejected by some of the victims, as well as the district attorney who prosecuted Aldrich in state court, who viewed it as an effort to avoid hate crime charges.
They include Ashtin Gamblin, who worked the front door that night and remains in physical therapy after being shot nine times. A true member of the LGBTQ+ community would know about the discrimination and mental health challenges it faces and would not attack its members in such a sanctuary, she said.
“To go into the only safe place to do that, you’re not part of the community. You just wanted the community to go away,” Gamblin said. She is among the survivors expected to speak during the hearing about how the attack still affects their lives.
Aldrich visited the club at least eight times before the attack, including a stop an hour and a half before the shooting, according to prosecutors. Just before midnight, Aldrich returned wearing a tactical vest with ballistic plates and carrying an AR-15-style rifle and immediately began shooting. Aldrich killed the first person at the entrance, shot bartenders and patrons in the bar, and then went to the dance floor, stopping to reload his rifle magazine.
The shooting was interrupted by a Marine officer who grabbed the barrel of the suspect’s rifle, burning his hand, and an Army veteran who helped subdue Aldrich until police arrived, authorities said.
There was an opportunity to prevent such violence: Aldrich was arrested in June 2021, accused of threatening his grandparents and promising to become “the next mass murderer” while stockpiling weapons, bulletproof vests and materials for making weapons. bombs. But Aldrich’s mother and grandparents refused to cooperate and prosecutors did not serve subpoenas on family members who could have kept the case alive, so the charges were ultimately dismissed.
A felony conviction in the case would have prevented Aldrich from legally purchasing more firearms. But District Attorney Michael Allen pointed out that most of the gun components used in the shooting were untraceable ghost gun parts that did not require Aldrich to undergo a background check to acquire them. Two guns seized from Aldrich in the 2021 case were still in the possession of the sheriff’s office at the time of the Club Q shooting, he said.
Justifying the proposed sentence, prosecutors wrote: “The horrors that the victims and survivors experienced at the hands of the defendant cannot be overstated. The victims and survivors, who were celebrating Transgender Day of Remembrance, were attacked when they least suspected it, by someone who was in their presence just hours before.”
Aldrich, who will return to state prison after the hearing, is being sentenced federally under the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which expanded federal law in 2009 to include crimes motivated by sexual orientation, gender or disability.
Gamblin wanted the death penalty as a recognition of how many people’s lives were harmed. She said some friends no longer want to go to events and others struggle to hold down jobs that involve working with the public.
“We don’t want anything to go back to normal again, but we know that’s not going to happen,” she said.
This story originally appeared on Time.com read the full story
