Shooter who killed five people at Colorado LGBT+ nightclub pleads guilty to 50 Federal hate crimes

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The shooter who killed five people and injured 19 others at an LGBTQ+ club that was a refuge in the conservative city of Colorado Springs pleaded guilty to federal hate crimes and was sentenced to 55 life terms in prison on Tuesday, but once again declined to apologize or say anything to the victims’ families.

Prosecutors nevertheless highlighted the importance of Anderson Lee Aldrich being forced to take responsibility for the hatred toward LGBTQ+ people that they say motivated the mass shooting. As part of a plea agreement, Aldrich repeatedly admitted on Tuesday to evidence of hate.

“The admission that these were hate crimes is important to the government, and it’s important to the community of Club Q,” said prosecutor Alison Connaughty.

Aldrich attacked a place that was much more than a bar, according to Connaughty, who described Club Q as a safe space for people in the LGBTQ+ community.

“We met people who said ‘this venue saved my life and I was able to feel normal again,’” she said. The sentence against Aldrich “sends a message that acts of hate will be met with severe consequences.”

Aldrich, 24, is already serving life in prison after pleading guilty to state charges last year. Federal prosecutors focused on proving that the Nov. 19, 2022 attack at the haven for LGBTQ+ people was premeditated and fueled by bias.

U.S. District Judge Charlotte Sweeney, the first openly gay federal judge in Colorado, heard heart-wrenching testimony from victims before accepting the agreement, which also includes a total of 190 years on gun charges and other counts.

Several of the survivors said they wanted the death penalty, but Sweeney explained that capital punishment had not been sought by prosecutors and would need to have been imposed by a jury. Instead, the life sentences will mean no drawn-out appeals and no more hearings where a hate crime defendant might become a symbol. She said Aldrich will never get out of prison and will face “a miserable future, with a miserable end.”

The survivors delivered harrowing accounts of the shooting and the fear and anguish they’ve lived with since then. Several called for Aldrich’s execution. The father of one victim said Aldrich “should be shot like a dog.”

Adriana Vance, whose son Raymond Green Vance was killed, said she wakes up screaming.

“All I have left of his now is the urn that I speak to every night,” she said. Aldrich “knows nothing but hate” and deserves death, she said.

One survivor -- who had been celebrating a birthday and performing as a drag queen that night -- expressed forgiveness for Aldrich, and focused on the community’s capacity to find joy despite the pain.

“I’ve had to look at my partner in a casket, attend funerals of my friends and deal with unspeakable trauma,” said Wyatt Kent. “I see this person as a hurt person, created by failures of systems around them designed to help. I forgive you. We, the queer community, we are the resilient ones.”

Aldrich, appearing in an orange prison uniform with head shaved and wrists handcuffed, faced the victims as they spoke but declined to make his own statement when given the chance. Defense attorney David Kraut made no explicit mention of hate or bias in his comments.

Kraut said there was no singular explanation for what motivated the mass shooting, but mentioned childhood trauma, an abusive mother, online extremism, drug use and access to guns as factors that increased the risk his client would engage in extreme violence.

Defense attorneys in the state case had pushed back against hate charges, arguing Aldrich was drugged with cocaine and medication. 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.” Aldrich previously pleaded no contest to state hate crime charges without admitting guilt.

Connaughty said evidence of Aldrich’s hate for the LGBTQ+ community included two websites created by Aldrich to post hate-related content, a target found inside the defendant’s house with a rainbow ring that had bullets in it and the defendant’s sharing of recordings of 911 calls from the 2016 killing of 49 people at the gay-friendly Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida.