EL PASO, Texas (CN)—A man serving a life sentence for killing 23 people at a Walmart in El Paso in a rampage targeting Hispanics has agreed to pay the victims’ families more than $5.5 million.
Patrick Crusius, 25, was sentenced to 90 consecutive life sentences in July after he pleaded guilty to a 90-count indictment, including hate crime charges.
He consented to paying the victims’ relatives $5.57 million in a joint restitution motion filed by federal prosecutors and his defense attorneys and approved Monday by Senior U.S. District Judge David Guaderrama.
Crusius entered a plea agreement in his federal case in February after prosecutors agreed not to seek the death penalty.
But he still faces state capital murder charges that could result in a death sentence. A jury will decide whether to assess that punishment.
El Paso County District Attorney Bill Hicks has said he hopes Crusius’ state trial will happen in 2024 or 2025.
Federal law requires restitution orders for victims of violent crimes, regardless of the defendant's ability to pay, according to a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney's Office of the Western District of Texas.
They did not respond to an inquiry asking if Crusius, who reportedly grew up in an upper middle-class household, has enough money in his federal prisoner deposit account to cover the payment.
But they said people he wounded are also entitled to restitution.
"Where the victim is deceased, the restitution is payable to the victim’s estate. Although no amount of restitution can account for the loss of life and injuries this defendant caused, the Department of Justice works to ensure not only that those who commit crimes are prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law but also that the victims receive justice," the spokesperson said in an emailed statement.
"Ensuring each victim’s right to restitution is part of achieving justice for victims. We work diligently to ensure the defendant is ordered to reimburse them for their losses," they added.
After driving 10 hours overnight from his suburban Dallas home to El Paso, he opened fire with an assault rifle, spraying bullets at shoppers outside and inside the store the morning of Aug. 3, 2019.
He wounded 22 people in addition to the nearly two dozen he killed.
Investigators discovered that shortly before the ambush he had posted a manifesto online titled “The Inconvenient Truth.”
In the opening paragraph, he wrote, “This attack is a response to the Hispanic invasion of Texas They are the instigators, not me. I am simply defending my country from cultural and ethnic replacement brought on by the invasion."
Crusius also wrote that his views “predate Trump.”
But white supremacy and extremism analysts noted the similarities between Crusius’ grievances and Donald Trump’s constant warnings about an impending immigrant invasion of the country during his tenure in the White House.
Crusius has struggled with mental illness since childhood, including fantasies of hurting his own family, his defense attorneys said at his federal sentencing hearing.
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