Club Q shooter pleads guilty, given five concurrent life sentences

COLORADO SPRINGS (CN) — Twenty-two-year-old Raymond Green Vance planned to grow old with his high school sweetheart. Daniel Aston, 28, was a positive force with piercing blue eyes. Ashley Paugh, 35, taught her 11-year-old daughter the power of forgiveness. Derrick Rump, 38, was generous and proud of who he was. Kelly Loving, 40, was on a mission to eliminate hate from the world.

Anderson Aldrich, 23, pleaded guilty Monday to murdering these five people at Club Q, an LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado Springs, Colorado, this past November. While clubgoers attended a drag show, held to honor Transgender Day of Remembrance, Aldrich opened fire until stopped by one patron and subdued by two others.

Aldrich illegally obtained both weapons without a background check — one through their mother and the other built from untraceable parts.

In addition to pleading guilty to 46-counts of attempted first degree murder, Aldrich pleaded no contest to two counts of bias motivated crimes. This is a slim portion of the 300 charges previously filed against Aldrich.

Fourth Judicial District Judge Michael McHenry imposed the maximum sentence possible on Aldrich: five consecutive life sentences for first degree murder, plus 46 sentences of 48 years and four years for committing a hate crime.

“Anderson Aldrich, when you commit a hate crime, you are targeting a group of people for their simple existence,” McHenry said. “This country was founded on the idea that all persons are created equal, the idea that God makes no mistakes, and our laws reflect this by making it clear that hate crimes are worse than other crimes.”

Although Aldrich pleaded no contest to hate crime charges, and argued in favor of dismissing them at a hearing this past February, Fourth Judicial District Attorney Michael Allen said pursuing the charges was important to the victims.

“In discussion with the friends and family members it became important to pursue the charges of bias-motivated crime,” Allen said. “To the victims, this represents the ‘why,’ and that matters here. Targeting of maligned groups or individuals will not be tolerated.”

More than two dozen victims and survivors addressed the court. Public defender Joseph Archambault has told the court Aldrich identifies as nonbinary and uses the pronouns they and them. Several individuals instead used male pronouns or the monstrous “it” to refer to Aldrich.

Richard Fierro, a U.S. Army veteran who helped subdue Aldrich, called the defendant a domestic terrorist.

“Nine-eleven, 2001, sent me and my family to war. Nov. 19, 2022 was the second time I went to war,” Fierro said. “I ask the court to impose the maximum sentence on this terrorist and force of hate.”

For more than two decades, Club Q operated as a safe haven for members of the LGBTQ community in conservative Colorado Springs. Owner Matthew Haynes vowed to reopen with a memorial to the lost.

“Although I was not there, I see the images over and over in my mind from the 23 security cameras,” Haynes said.

“You are a small person in a large body filled with hate,” Haynes addressed Aldrich. “Your head carries the scars from our community fighting back. May every time you look in the mirror, remember what you did.”

Aldrich declined to address the court except to plead guilty and confirm they understood the consequences of doing so.

“I intentionally and after deliberation caused the death of each victim listed in those counts,” Aldrich recited, wearing a green shirt and dark pants.

The court will order Aldrich to pay restitution at another date.

The Gun Violence Archive recorded 44,356 gun deaths in 2022, including 646 mass shootings. The nonprofit has tracked 20,791 gun deaths so far this year in the U.S. including 328 mass shootings.

Ashtin Gamblin sustained nine gunshot wounds but survived the shooting after bartender Daniel Aston blocked her from more bullets. She read a statement to the court attributed to her father, Bill Morton.

“The number five is cold, it is a statistic, it does not convey what was lost,” Gamblin read. “We must always remember the number represents Daniel and it represents Derrick. The number five represents Ashley, it represents Kelly, it represents Raymond.”

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