Los Angeles, June 27 (EFE) .- Patrick Crusius, the man accused of the deadliest attack against Latinos in the history of the United States, will face a federal trial on January 8, 2024 in the city of El Paso, Texas, according to documents judicial.
Crusius is accused of killing 23 people and injuring dozens more in an attack on Aug. 3, 2019, at a Walmart mall in the border city of El Paso.
According to documents obtained by KTSM 9 News television, US District Judge David C. Guaderrama, who is presiding over the case, has set Crusius’ trial to begin on January 8, 2024.
As of February 2020, the shooter was charged with 90 counts, which included 22 counts of hate crimes resulting in death, 23 counts of hate crimes involving an attempt to kill, and 45 counts of discharging a firearm in connection with crimes of hatred.
Five months later, on July 9, the shooter was charged again, adding the death of one more person.
The charges carry a maximum penalty of death or life in prison; however, the attorney general has not yet given his decision on the matter.
According to investigative documents, the defendant confessed to the police when he was arrested that his goal was to kill “Mexicans” and acknowledged that he was the one who opened fire on a crowd at the Walmart in El Paso, where many people usually go to buy Mexican citizens.
Through his attorneys, Crusius has pleaded not guilty in state and federal court.
Crusius drove nearly ten hours from the city of Allen to El Paso to commit the massacre at that supermarket and allegedly posted a manifesto online claiming the attack was a “response to the Hispanic invasion of Texas.”
El Paso County Judge Ricardo Samaniego, in an interview quoted by The Dallas Morning News on Monday, warned that the date is still “quite a long way off” and that there is a chance of more delays.
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