90 life sentences for crash test dummy ’murder’ in 2019 El Paso-Walmart Shooting

Video Transcript:

the gunman in the mass shooting at Walmart and El Paso, Texas sentence to serve 90 consecutive life terms. But 24-year-old Patrick Krushas still faces state charges that could result in the death penalty after killing 23 people at that Walmart back in 2019. Earlier this year, he pleaded guilty to nearly 50 federal hate crime charges, making it one of the U.S. government's largest hate crime cases. Here to discuss the details of this case, ABC News Legal Contributor and Host at the Law and Crime Network Brian Buckmeyer. Brian, first I want to get your reaction to this sentence saying, and what more can you tell us about it? So initially, I am someone shocked, but I think it's understandable that they gave him an option to avoid the death penalty because, as you said, it is still on the table for Texas. And I think Texas is likely going to progress forward. And my initial reaction was less about the sentence here because it made sense. This is the deadliest shooting in American history with 23 victims. Don't forget in the Parkland School shooter case, that was only 17. So I thought it was interesting that it was 90 consecutive life sentences. I'm not totally surprised that the death on the table because I think they're still waiting to see what Texas does. Talk to us more about the death penalty. How could he still face that? Yeah. So here he's taking the plea in federal court because of the federal crimes associated with the hate crime charges that the federal government pursued. In Texas, they still have their own charges that they can pursue as well. And as we know, Texas have the death penalty. I don't think it's just going to be a legal issue. I think it also will be somewhat political. As I mentioned earlier in the Parkland School shooter case, the death penalty was there, but actually the jury voted against it. And the governor DeSantis actually changed the laws to allow for an easier non-unanimous conviction. I think Texas here will be having the idea that we want to be better than Florida in the sense of seeking the death penalty. And I think they'll pursue it much harder and try to get it because of the severity of the case, because of the hate that's involved in it and the amount of death associated with the crimes. And Brian, what role did race play do you think in this sentencing? Race was everything. It was not just in the charges, but also in the words of the shooter himself, spewing anti-immigrant and anti-Hispanic, more specifically anti-Mexican rhetoric, and the way he discussed and described his hate towards this community, I think it gave the prosecution and the judge every tool in their repertoire, so to speak, to say we are going to seek the highest amount of jail time after they took the death penalty off the table. And not just run it concurrently, meaning you could serve all of these life sentences at once, and he would have one life sentence, but to run it consecutively, to show how serious the federal government and this judge is taking these charges because of the degree of hate that was spewed by this defendant and the motivation to kill people ages 15 to, I think, elderly grandparents. It was just so tragic, 23 lives lost. Brian Buckmeyer, thank you. For breaking news alerts, thanks for watching.