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Walmart mass shooting case could be tried in mid-2026 under judge’s schedule [1]
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Date: 2024-09-23
The gunman who has admitted to killing 23 people and wounding 22 others at an El Paso Walmart in 2019 could face trial on state capital murder charges no sooner than the middle of 2026 under a scheduling order issued Monday by the judge in the case.
The scheduling order issued by 409th District Judge Sam Medrano has arguments on pretrial motions beginning in January 2025 and jury selection beginning in January 2026. Jury selection in high-profile death penalty cases often takes three months or more, and the Walmart case is the most high-profile crime in El Paso’s history.
The scheduling order Monday doesn’t have a trial date, but the beginning of questioning of individual potential jurors – known as voir dire – is set for Jan. 12, 2026. The questioning likely will take months.
At an often-contentious scheduling conference on Sept. 12, Medrano had promised to issue a scheduling order by the end of the month in the case against Patrick Crusius, 26, of Allen, Texas. He faces 23 counts of capital murder – which carry the possibility of the death penalty – and 22 counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
At the Sept. 12 hearing, District Attorney Bill Hicks said prosecutors were ready to proceed toward trial but defense attorneys said it would take them as much as two years to go through evidence turned over by prosecutors in what they called a disorganized manner.
The two-page scheduling order calls for almost monthly hearings beginning Jan. 13, 2025. Most of the hearings are dedicated to legal motions on evidence. In August 2025, the lawyers in the case will submit proposed written jury questionnaires.
The questionnaires would be presented to potential jurors – likely to number in the hundreds, based on past death penalty cases – in November 2025. Potential jurors who make it through initial screening would be brought back in January 2026 for more intensive questioning by lawyers in the case.
If the voir dire process proves unable to seat a jury, Medrano could consider a change of venue that would move the trial outside El Paso. Both the prosecution and defense have said they want to try the case in El Paso.
The scheduling order could be modified based on events in the coming months.
In 2023, Crusius pleaded guilty to federal hate crimes and weapons charges and was sentenced to 90 consecutive life terms in federal prison. U.S. District Judge David Guaderrama of El Paso recommended that Crusius serve his sentence at the so-called “super-max” prison in Colorado, but the U.S. Bureau of Prisons isn’t bound by the recommendation.
Crusius admitted to driving 10 hours across Texas on Aug. 3, 2019, and shooting dozens of people inside and outside the Cielo Vista Walmart. He acknowledged posting a screed on the internet minutes before the shooting that outlined the so-called “great replacement theory” that motivated him to open fire in an effort to “stop the Hispanic invasion of Texas.”
District Attorney Bill Hicks, left, and defense lawyer Joe Spencer, center, argued at a Sept. 12, 2024, hearing in 409th District Court. At left are Walmart mass shooting defendant Patrick Crusius and defense attorney Mark Stevens. (Ruben R. Ramirez/El Paso Inc)
The federal prison system has no parole, so Crusius almost certainly will spend the rest of his life behind bars.
“Today’s federal sentencing ensures that Patrick will leave prison in a coffin. The only question will be whether it’s on God’s time or man’s time,” defense attorney Joe Spencer said at Crusius’ formal sentencing July 7, 2023.
He was alluding to the possible death sentence in the pending state case. Federal prosecutors decided in January 2023 not to seek the death penalty in their case against Crusius, and he quickly agreed to plead guilty.
Spencer has accused Hicks and former District Attorney Yvonne Rosales of seeking the death penalty “for political advantage.” Both prosecutors have said they believe the death penalty is an appropriate punishment for the deadliest attack targeting Hispanics in modern U.S. history.
The defense team has urged state prosecutors to follow their federal counterparts in removing the death penalty as a possibility. The U.S. Justice Department has refused to say why they took the death penalty off the table, but Assistant U.S. Attorney Ian Hanna hinted at Crusius’ a February 2023 plea hearing that his diagnosis of schizoaffective disorder was a factor.
Hicks, a Republican who was appointed by Gov. Greg Abbott after Rosales resigned in 2022, is facing Democrat James Montoya in the Nov. 5 general election for a four-year term as district attorney. Montoya has said an El Paso jury should decide whether Crusius faces the death penalty, but also has said he might consider a plea deal if no trial date is set by the time he takes office on Jan. 1, 2025, if elected.
The next hearing in the Walmart case will be Oct. 31, when Medrano will consider a defense request that it be given access to records that might show prosecutorial misconduct since 2020. The defense lawyers say the alleged misconduct should lead to dismissal of the case or removal of the death penalty as an option.
Many of the allegations date to Rosales’ time in office. At a brief news conference following the Sept. 12 hearing, Hicks said the defense motion lacked merit.
“Their accusations are not based on the law. We’re fine,” he said.
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https://elpasomatters.org/2024/09/23/aug-3-2019-walmart-mass-shooting-patrick-crusius-trial/
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