The gunman who killed five people and endangered the lives of more than 40 at a Colorado Springs LGBTQ+ nightclub has been found guilty of new federal hate crimes and firearms violations under an agreement that allows the defendant to avoid the death penalty. announced that it would be approved. in court documents released Tuesday.
Anderson Aldrich, 23, agreed with prosecutors to plead guilty to 50 hate crime charges and 24 firearms violations, according to documents.
Under the proposed agreement, Aldrich would be sentenced to 190 years in prison, which must be approved by a judge, plus multiple life sentences.
The January 9 plea deal was unsealed by the court after Aldrich pleaded not guilty in his first court appearance Tuesday afternoon.
According to the agreement, gun charges could carry up to the death penalty.
Aldrich was sentenced to life in prison last June after pleading guilty to state charges of murder and 46 counts of attempted murder (one count for each person at Club Q during the Nov. 19, 2022, attack).
News of the new charges and planned agreement comes days after federal prosecutors announced they would seek the death penalty in a separate hate crime case against a white supremacist who killed 10 black people at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York. brought about later.
The decision does not change Attorney General Merrick Garland's moratorium on federal executions, but it opens a new chapter in the long and complicated history of capital punishment in the United States.
Ashtin Gamblin, who was seriously injured after being shot nine times at Club Q, appeared at a hearing Tuesday.
She called the shooting a hate crime and said Aldrich should be labeled as the person who carried out the shooting.
Gamblin also said he told federal prosecutor Aldrich that the men should face the death penalty for their actions, even if no punishment is served.
She told Aldrich that she wanted Aldrich to sit with the idea that they could die “at any time” or “at any time.”
Aldrich, who is non-binary and uses they/them pronouns, also did not contest the state hate crime charge under the plea agreement.
The plea acknowledged that Aldrich could very well be convicted of these crimes without admitting guilt.
The plea carried the same weight as a conviction.
At Tuesday's hearing, Aldrich appeared in court via video from an undisclosed location and was represented by David Kraut of the federal public defender's office.
Phone and email messages left at Kraut's office were not immediately returned.
Jeff Aston, whose son Daniel Aston was shot and killed in the attack, watched the hearing remotely.
This was a hateful, stupid, heinous, despicable act,” Aston said, adding that he wants to see Aldrich suffer as much as the victims and their families.
After the incident, Daniel Aston's parents said they felt Club Q was a safe space for trans men and drag queens.
Michael Anderson, who was a bartender at Club Q when the shootings broke out, said the federal charges “send a message to those who seek to commit acts of violence against this community that this will not be tolerated.” “This will serve as a deterrent, letting people know that there is no such thing,” he said. I was swept away or overlooked. ”
“No amount of justice served across the state or across the commonwealth can undo the bullets that have been fired,” he said.
When Aldrich was sentenced in state court, Colorado Springs District Attorney Michael Allen said the possibility of the death penalty in the federal system was “a big part of the motivation for the defendant to plead guilty to the state charges.” occupied,” he said.
Aldrich declined to speak at the sentencing hearing in state court and would not say why he went out clubbing and came back wearing a bulletproof vest.
Aldrich began firing an AR-15 style rifle as soon as they returned.
Prosecutors say Aldrich had been to the club at least six times before that night and that Aldrich's mother forced them to go.
Aldrich told The Associated Press in a series of phone calls from prison that at the time of the attack they were on “very large amounts of drugs” and were abusing steroids.
Asked whether the attack was motivated by hatred, Aldrich said: “That's completely off base.”
The district attorney called those statements self-serving and characterized the claims as ringing hollow.
He said Aldrich's claim to be non-binary was part of his attempt to avoid hate crime charges, and that there was no evidence Aldrich identified as non-binary before the shooting. Ta.
At a hearing in the state case in February, prosecutors said Aldrich controlled a website that posted target practice videos of “neo-Nazi white supremacists.”
A police detective and his online gaming friends also testified that Aldrich expressed hatred toward police, LBGTQ+ people, and minorities, and used racist and homophobic slurs.
One person said Aldrich sent an online message with a photo of a trained rifle at a gay pride parade.
The attack shattered the sense of safety at Club Q, which had served as a haven for the city's LGBTQ+ community.
Authorities said a Navy officer who grabbed the barrel of the suspect's rifle stopped the shooting by burning his hand, and an Army veteran helped subdue and beat Aldrich until police arrived.
The 2022 attack comes more than a year after Aldrich was arrested for threatening his grandparents and vowing to become the “next mass murderer” while stockpiling weapons, bulletproof vests and bomb-making materials.
Those charges were ultimately dismissed after Aldrich's mother and grandparents refused to cooperate with prosecutors.
Colorado Department of Corrections spokeswoman Alondra Gonzalez said Aldrich was transferred to the Wyoming State Penitentiary last year due to safety concerns regarding the high-profile case.
Associated Press writers Jesse Bedine contributed from Denver and Matthew Brown from Billings, Montana.
