Anderson Aldrich, the 23-year-old responsible for killing five people at a horrible shooting at Club Q, a gay bar in Colorado Springs in 2022, recently made a deal with prosecutors to plead guilty to 50 hate crimes charges, and 24 firearm violations.
Aldrich will receive multiple life sentences in addition to a 190-year sentence, under the proposed agreement-which still needs a judge's approval. This plea agreement would allow Aldrich to avoid the death penalty.
Initially, Aldrich pleaded not guilty in a prior court appearance. The gun charges alone could carry a maximum penalty of death. This comes days after federal prosecutors announced they would seek the death penalty in another highly publicized case involving a brutally biased individual.
Payton Gendron, a white supremacist who killed 10 Black people at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, will be hit with the death penalty by federal prosecutors. Attorney General Merrick Garland said he sought the death penalty because the shootings were motivated by the defendant's "animus toward Black persons."
Background On Aldrich
Aldrich, who identifies as nonbinary, pleaded no contest to state charges of hate under a plea agreement. For Tuesday's hearing, Aldrich appeared by video from an undisclosed location and was represented by David Kraut with the federal public defender's office.
Colorado Springs District Attorney Michael Allen reportedly said the possibility of the death sentence is a big reason why Aldrich pleaded guilty to state charges. Prosecutors say Aldrich had visited the club at least six times before that night and that Aldrich's mother had forced them to go.
Aldrich told The Associated Press they were on a "very large plethora of drugs" and abusing steroids at the time of the attack. When asked whether the attack was motivated by hate, Aldrich said that was "completely off base."
Reuters reports that the attack came about a year after Aldrich was arrested for threatening his grandparents and saying he'd become "the next mass killer." He also had a stockpile of weapons and body armor at the time.
