Accused killer of 23 people at Texas Walmart expected to plead guilty to federal charges

The man accused of killing nearly two dozen people in a racist attack at an El Paso Walmart plans to plead guilty to federal charges in the case, according to court records filed a day after the federal government said it would not seek the death penalty in the case.

Patrick Crusius is still charged in state court with capital murder and could still face the death penalty in Texas if convicted in the 2019 mass shooting, which killed 23 people.

In a court filing Friday, defense attorneys asked that the hearing be set so Crusius could plead guilty to the federal charges. He was charged with a federal hate crime and a firearms offense.

U.S. District Judge David Guaderrama, in an order Monday, set the hearing for Feb. 8 in El Paso.

Crusius surrendered to police after the attack, saying, “I’m the shooter” and that he was targeting Mexicans, according to the arrest warrant.

Prosecutors said he published the screed on the website 8chan shortly before the shooting “in response to the Hispanic invasion of Texas.”

Democrats have criticized US president-elect Donald Trump for using the word “invasion” in previous years about migrants seeking asylum at the southern border.

Court delays in state cases

The shooting on August 3, 2019 happened on a busy weekend at Walmart, which is usually popular with shoppers from Mexico and the U.S. In addition to the dead, more than two dozen were injured. Many are Mexican citizens.

El Paso is a predominantly Hispanic city that is an international metro area with Ciudad Juarez having over two million people.

Although the federal and state cases are moving forward on parallel tracks, it’s unclear when Crusius could be tried on state charges. A status hearing in the state’s case is scheduled for Wednesday afternoon, according to court records.

The district attorney who had led the state’s case, Yvonne Rosales, resigned in November amid allegations of incompetence involving hundreds of cases in El Paso.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott last month appointed a new district attorney to “restore confidence” in the local criminal justice system.