The suspect in the Colorado Springs nightclub mass shooting at LGBTQ bar Club Q accepted a plea deal Monday.
Anderson Lee Aldrich, who identifies as nonbinary, has pleaded guilty to five counts of murder in the first degree, and 46 counts of attempted murder in the first degree.
Aldrich will receive five consecutive life sentences without the possibility for parole on the murder charges, and receive 46 consecutive 48-year sentences for the attempted murder counts followed by mandatory periods of parole, according to Judge Michael McHenry.
They will plead no contest to “a class five felony bias-motivated crime and class one misdemeanor bias-motivated crime” with associated sentences, according to McHenry.
Aldrich did not reveal motivation and declined to address the court during the sentencing part of the hearing. Defense attorney Joseph Archambault said, “They want everyone to know they’re sorry.”
During the sentencing, many of the victims and family members of the killed filled the courtroom.
Ashley Paugh was among the victims who died in the attack. At least 19 people were also injured in the shooting.
“Ashley was an amazing woman who always showed so much love and kindness toward people,” Paugh’s sister, Stephanie Clark, said in court Monday. “My world was shattered the morning of Nov. 20.”
“The screams and the cries” of Paugh’s daughter after learning about her mother’s death “are forever etched in my mind,” she said, wishing Aldrich could hear it for themself.
Aldrich’s plea deal comes seven months after the shooting and avoids the potential of a painful and difficult trial for the victims’ families and everyone involved.
Investigators said Aldrich allegedly opened fire when they walked into Club Q before midnight on Nov. 19, 2022. Patrons at the venue tackled Aldrich, subduing them until police arrived, according to witnesses.
El Paso County District Attorney Michael Allen told Judge McHenry that Aldrich’s attempts to express remorse ring hollow.
“He knew exactly what he was doing and was clear-headed while doing it,” Allen said. “When first responders arrived on the scene, he immediately started blaming one of the patrons for carrying out the shooting.”
In February, preliminary hearings were held on whether the case against Aldrich was strong enough to move forward. Their defense attorneys focused on Aldrich’s mental health and highlighted Aldrich’s history of drug use, and claimed they suffered abuse at home to counter the messaging that Aldrich was motivated by hate.
“Aldrich’s behavior after this incident says they’re sorry, upset, and emotional about what they did,” defense attorney Joseph Archambault said in court. “It’s categorically different than someone who targets a group, and that’s not what Aldrich did.”
According to testimony from lead detective Rebecca Joines in the preliminary hearings, investigators for the state said Aldrich administered and ran a website that hosted a “neo-Nazi white supremacist” shooting training video. Joines also said that Aldrich used gay and racial slurs when playing video games online in testimony aimed at Aldrich’s bias charges.
“You are targeting a group of people for their simple existence,” said Judge Michael McHenry.
“Like too many other people in our culture, you chose to find power that day behind the trigger of a gun, your actions reflect the deepest malice of the human heart, and malice is almost always born of ignorance and fear,” the judge continued.
The attack at Club Q came over a year after Aldrich was arrested for threatening their grandparents and vowing to become “the next mass killer ” while stockpiling weapons, body armor, and bomb-making materials.
Matthew Haynes, one of the owners of Club Q, said he wasn’t at the club when the shooting happened but has watched surveillance camera recordings of the attacks many times.
“This defendant went to Club Q several times before Nov. 19,” Haynes said. “You were served food and drinks by the very bartenders—Daniel, Derek—that you would later return and murder in cold blood. Your head carries the scars of our community fighting back. May you remember what you did every time you look in the mirror.”
From The Epoch Times
