Death Penalty News

Patrick Crusius had acknowledged he targeted Hispanics on Aug. 3, 2019, when he opened fire in the store crowded with weekend shoppers from the U.S. and Mexico in the border city of El Paso. The Texas gunman who killed 23 people in a racist attack targeting “Mexican” shoppers at a Walmart in El Paso in 2019, was sentenced to 23 consecutive life sentences, after he pleaded guilty in state court Monday morning. Patrick Crusius accepted a plea deal offered by the El Paso District Attorney’s office in return for not pursuing the death penalty. District Attorney James Montoya said he offered the deal after a request from the majority of the families of those killed, in trying to bring this case to a close.

The El Paso County district attorney announced Tuesday that Patrick Crusius, who killed 23 people in a 2019 racist attack at a Walmart near the U.S.-Mexico border, would avoid the death penalty under a new plea offer . The decision marks the end of a yearslong legal battle, but the victims’ families are divided by the decision. District Attorney James Montoya, who took office in January, said the decision was primarily driven by victims’ families seeking closure. “This is about allowing the families of the 23 victims who lost their lives on that horrific day — and the 22 wounded — to finally have resolution in our court system,” Montoya stated.

Patrick Crusius, who has admitted to killing 23 people and wounding 22 others in a racist mass shooting at an El Paso Walmart in 2019, will no longer face the death penalty, El Paso Matters has learned. District Attorney James Montoya, who took office on Jan. 1, called family members of those killed on Monday to inform them he wouldn’t seek the death penalty in the Aug. 3, 2019, mass shooting, multiple family members told El Paso Matters. The family members asked not to be identified because of a gag order in place since 2022 that prohibited lawyers and potential witnesses from discussing the case with the media.

As El Pasoans gather for the fifth anniversary of the Aug. 3, 2019, mass shooting at an El Paso Walmart, the state of Texas' death penalty case against the gunman continues to languish in legal maneuvering and a judge's gag order. The case has been delayed in state court for several reasons, mainly because state prosecutors and defense attorneys are continuing a years-long battle over how to handle the massive amount of evidence in the case.

Earlier this month, family members of some of the 23 people killed and 22 people injured by a mass shooter at an El Paso Walmart in 2019 confronted the killer for the first time in a federal court. They’d waited nearly four years. Some were barely able to speak through tears. “I still remember everything so clearly, even though I have tried to erase it from my memory,” one teenager said, according to media reports. They should not bear these memories alone. Against the waves of gun violence that seem to regularly beat against this country, we have called for a vigil of memory, testimony and witnessing. At times we have mourned alongside communities. Other times we have called for action. Steady oars in angry waters.

CHICAGO — (AP) — Two separate shootings 2,000 miles (3,218 kilometers) apart. One killed 11 at a Pittsburgh synagogue. The other killed 23 at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas. Both were motivated by racial hate. Both involved gunmen who later claimed mental illness. But earlier this year, the Justice Department authorized the death penalty only for the case in Pittsburgh, where jurors will soon answer the weightiest of questions: Should Robert Bowers be put to death? Bowers' trial is in the penalty phase after his June conviction for the 2018 antisemitic attack. A federal judge last Friday gave Patrick Crusius the maximum available sentence for the 2019 Walmart attack on Hispanics: life in prison. He pleaded guilty after the department took a death sentence off the table.

The admitted white supremacist who was sentenced to life in prison by a federal court for the Walmart mass shooting is now in state custody and remains in El Paso as he awaits a state trial in connection with the attack, officials said. El Paso District Attorney Bill Hicks announced Tuesday during a news conference that Patrick Crusius, 24, was transferred about 1 p.m. Tuesday from federal custody to state custody – the first major step to moving forward with the state of Texas' case against the gunman.

EL PASO, Texas (AP) — A white gunman who killed 23 people in a racist attack on Hispanic shoppers at a Walmart in a Texas border city was sentenced Friday to 90 consecutive life sentences but could still face more punishment, including the death penalty. Patrick Crusius, 24, pleaded guilty earlier this year to nearly 50 federal hate crime charges in the 2019 mass shooting in El Paso, making it one of the U.S. government’s largest hate crime cases. Crusius, wearing a jumpsuit and shackles, did not speak during the hearing and showed no reaction as the sentence was read. U.S. District Judge David Guaderrama recommended that Crusius serve his sentence at a maximum security prison in Colorado.

EL PASO, Texas (AP) — A white Texas gunman who killed 23 people at a Walmart in 2019 returns to court Wednesday for sentencing in a mass shooting that targeted Hispanic shoppers in the border city of El Paso. Patrick Crusius, 24, is set to receive multiple life sentences after pleading guilty to federal hate crime and weapons charges in one of the deadliest mass shootings in U.S. history. Although the federal government did not seek the death penalty, Texas prosecutors have not taken lethal injection off the table under a separate case in state court. Investigators say the shooting was preceded by Crusius posting a racist screed online.

EL PASO, Texas (KFOX14/CBS4) — El Paso District Attorney Bill Hicks on Thursday shared details about the timeline to get the El Paso Walmart shooter state trial started after the federal case ends. Hicks explained what needs to happen once Patrick Crusius receives his sentence in federal court. "After that sentencing [in federal court] there is a paperwork process. Once that paperwork process is complete the shooter [Crusius] will come into state custody and we will proceed with our case in state custody,” said Hicks. After Crusius is sentenced, it could take anywhere from two to four weeks for him to transition into state custody, Hicks explained. "The number one priority of my office has been to put the Walmart case back on track and I’m very confident that we have done that, that we are prepared to proceed with prosecution on the case and that once he is back in our custody, looks like it will be sometime late June maybe early August, will be ready to proceed with the pros...

Ivan Cantu is scheduled to be executed at 6 pm local time on Wednesday, April 26, 2023, inside the Walls Unit execution chamber at the Huntsville State Penitentiary in Texas. Forty-nine-year-old Ivan is convicted of murdering 27-year-old James Mosqueda and 21-year-old Amy Kitchens on November 4, 2000, in Dallas, Texas. For the last 21 years, Ivan has resided on death row in Texas. Ivan Abner Cantu graduated from high school and did not have any prior convictions. Ivan had previously worked as a laborer. In 1998 or 1999, Ivan was hired by his cousin, James Mosqueda to work in James’ mortgage banking business in Dallas, Texas. James eventually fired Ivan in mid-2000. Ivan Cantu moved into an apartment with his girlfriend and her brother on October 15, 2000. The apartment was located about one mile from where James lived. In late October, Cantu informed one of his roommates that he was going to kill his cousin James. Cantu alleged that James was a part-time drug dealer of cocaine and mari...

Accused El Paso Walmart shooter pleads guilty to 90 federal charges including hate crimes. EL PASO, Texas (KTEP) - The man accused of killing 23 people at an El Paso Walmart pleaded guilty to 90 federal charges including murder and hate crimes. Dressed in a dark blue prison jumpsuit, wearing a facemask and shackled, Patrick Crusius, showed little emotion as he listened to each one of the names of the 23 people gunned down at a Walmart in 2019 or injured in the attack. He answered guilty to each charge of murder and attempted murder as well as hate crimes.

Aug. 3, 2019, was a day marked by a tragedy in the borderland; when Patrick Crusius entered a Walmart on the east side shooting 23 people, wounding 23 more. The El Paso community, along with the relatives and friends of the victims, demanded justice on their behalf after one of the worst attacks against Latinos in recent history and an act of domestic terrorism.   In response to their pleas, a Texas grand jury indicted 21-year-old Crusius with capital murder on Sept. 12, 2019. Crusius issued a not-guilty plea during his first hearing in October at the El Paso County Courthouse that same year. 

Wesley Ruiz, 43, who shot and killed Dallas police officer Mark Nix in 2007, has been executed in Texas as a battle continues to rage in the state about the ability to use out of date drugs for lethal injections Ruiz, 43, was sentenced to death nearly 15 years ago for the 2007 shooting of Dallas police Senior Cpl. Mark Nix following a high-speed car chase.  The chase began while police were searching for a murder suspect, according to court documents. Ruiz’s car eventually slid off the side of the road, and Nix rushed over and began smashing the passenger side window with his police baton. Ruiz fatally shot him in the chest through the back passenger window, court filings state.  "I would like to apologize to Mark and the Nix family. I hope this brings you closure. I want to say to all my family and friends around the world thank you for supporting me. To my kids, stand tall and continue to make me proud, don’t worry about me I’m going to be OK," Ruiz said in his final statem...

A man convicted of fatally shooting a Dallas police officer nearly 16 years ago is facing execution HOUSTON (AP) — A man convicted of fatally shooting a Dallas police officer nearly 16 years ago faces execution on Wednesday. Wesley Ruiz, 43, is set to receive a lethal injection for the March 2007 killing of Dallas Police Senior Corporal Mark Nix. Ruiz had led officers on a high-speed chase after being spotted driving a car that matched the description of one used by a murder suspect. Authorities said Nix tried to break the vehicle’s passenger window after the chase ended and that Ruiz fired one shot. The bullet hit Nix’s badge, splintered it and sent fragments that severed an artery in his neck. Nix later died in a hospital.

The man accused of murdering 23 people at an El Paso Walmart in 2019 will plead guilty to federal hate crimes charges, his attorneys said in a court filing on Saturday. The announcement comes four days after the Justice Department announced that it would not seek the death penalty in federal charges against Patrick Crusius. The Aug. 3, 2019, mass shooting was the deadliest attack targeting Hispanic people in the nation’s history.

Crusius could still face execution if convicted in state court Federal prosecutors will not seek the death penalty for a man accused of fatally shooting nearly two dozen people in a racist attack at a West Texas Walmart in 2019. The U.S. Department of Justice disclosed the decision not to pursue capital punishment against Patrick Crusius in a one-sentence notice filed with the federal court in El Paso on Tuesday.

PHOENIX (AP) — The trial of a man accused of fatally shooting nine people in the Phoenix metro area over an 11-month span has been pushed back again, this time to February 2024. Aaron Saucedo, 28, was arrested in April 2017 in connection with serial street shootings that began in August 2015 and ended in July 2016. Authorities said Saucedo, a former Phoenix bus driver, was allegedly linked to 12 separate shootings that left nine people dead and three injured, mostly in a largely Latino neighborhood in west Phoenix. The victims were Black women and young Hispanic men and all but one were randomly shot, according to prosecutors who are seeking the death penalty. Saucedo is facing charges for first-degree murder, drive-by shooting, attempted murder, aggravated assault, discharging a firearm at a non-residence, endangerment, and discharging a firearm at a residence. Prosecutors allege Saucedo targeted victims after dark and shot them as they stood outside their homes or sat in cars. Sauced...

Texas death-row prisoner Ramiro Gonzales is seeking clemency from Governor Greg Abbott ahead of his scheduled execution date of July 13, 2022.  Gonzales’ clemency petition describes the neglect and abuse he experienced as a child, the misrepresentations presented at his trial, and his rehabilitation and transformation during his time on death row.  The petition also asks that, even if clemency is denied, Gov. Abbott grant Gonzales a reprieve so he can donate one of his kidneys as an act of atonement. The clemency petition and an accompanying video present the story of Gonzales’ upbringing. Born to a 17-year-old mother who rejected him, Gonzales was raised by his grandparents. One of his cousins described Gonzales’ childhood, saying he received “no love and affection,” and that their grandparents provided him only “the bare minimum of what a human being could have to survive.”  Gonzales was sexually abused beginning at the age of six. The one source of love and support in ...

Ramiro Gonzales is scheduled to be executed in Texas on 13 July 2022. He was sentenced to death in September 2006 for a murder committed in January 2001 when he was 18 years old and emerging from a childhood of abuse and neglect. He is now 39. Amnesty International is urging the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles and the state Governor to grant clemency. In October 2002, Ramiro Gonzales pled guilty to the abduction and rape of a woman in September 2001 and was sentenced to life imprisonment. Soon after he began this sentence, he admitted to the murder of an 18-year-old woman committed in January 2001 while robbing the home of the person who supplied him with cocaine (a drug he had already consumed that day). At the time of the murder, Ramiro Gonzales was 72 days past his 18th birthday. At the sentencing phase of his 2006 trial, the prosecution presented a psychiatrist who testified that Ramiro Gonzales would likely commit acts of violence in prison. He acknowledged that the American Ps...