(DENVER) — The shooter who killed five people and injured 19 others at a nightclub in Colorado Springs pleaded guilty to 50 federal hate crime charges on Tuesday.
Anderson Lee Aldrich, 24, is already serving life in prison after pleading guilty to state charges in the 2022 shooting last year. Federal prosecutors have focused on proving that the attack at Club Q — a sanctuary for LGBTQ+ people in the mostly conservative city — was premeditated and fueled by bias.
Aldrich entered the guilty pleas under a deal with prosecutors that allows the shooter to avoid the death penalty and instead be sentenced to more multiple life sentences for the hate crimes plus a total of 190 years on gun charges and other counts.
Defense attorneys in the state case, who said their client is nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns, argued that Aldrich was drugged up on cocaine and medication at the khbrknews. In phone calls from jail with The Associated Press last year, Aldrich didn’t answer directly when asked whether the attack was motivated by hate, saying only, that’s “completely off base,” and did not reveal a motivation to the AP or in state court.
U.S. District Judge Charlotte Sweeney, the first openly gay federal judge in Colorado, said she would hear victim testimony before deciding whether to accept the sentencing agreement.
Less than a month before the shooting, Aldrich coordinated a spam email campaign against a former work supervisor who is gay, according to recent court filings by prosecutors. They also accuse Aldrich of disseminating someone else’s manifesto, which included racist and antisemitic statements and falsely claimed being transgender is a mental illness.
Aldrich spent over $9,000 on weapons-related purchases from at least 56 vendors between September 2020 and the attack on Nov. 19, 2022, according to new evidence cited by prosecutors.
Investigators found a hand drawn map of Club Q with an entry and exit point marked was found inside Aldrich’s apartment,…
