The gunman who killed five people at a Colorado LGBTQ+ club pleads guilty to 50 federal hate crimes charges

DENVER (AP) — The gunman who killed five people and injured 19 others at an LGBTQ+ club that served as a sanctuary in the conservative city of Colorado Springs pleaded guilty Tuesday to federal hate crimes and was sentenced to 55 life terms in prison, but again declined to apologize or say anything to the victims’ families.

Prosecutors still stressed the importance of forcing Anderson Lee Aldrich to take responsibility for the hatred against LGBTQ+ people that they say was the cause of the mass shooting. As part of a plea agreement, Aldrich repeatedly acknowledged Tuesday that he had evidence of hatred.

“The admission that this was a hate crime is important for the government and it is important for the Club Q community,” said prosecutor Alison Connaughty.

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

“We met people who said, ‘This place saved my life and made me feel normal again,'” she said. The verdict against Aldrich “sends the message that hate crimes will be punished with severe consequences.”

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

U.S. District Judge Charlotte Sweeney, the first openly gay federal judge in Colorado, heard heartbreaking testimony from victims before accepting the plea deal, which also includes a total sentence of 190 years for gun offenses.

Several of the survivors said they wanted the death penalty. But Sweeney explained that the death penalty was not something prosecutors had asked for and should have been imposed by a jury. Instead, Sweeney said, the life sentences would mean no more lengthy appeals and no more hearings where a hate crime defendant could become a symbol. Recalling the perspective of the father of Matthew Shepard, the gay college student killed in Wyoming in 1998 and for whom the federal hate crimes law is partly named, she said Aldrich will never get out of prison and will face “a miserable future with a miserable ending.”

“Don’t let this person take anything else from you,” she said.

Survivors described harrowing scenes of the shooting and the fear and agony they have experienced since then. Several called for Aldrich’s execution. The father of one victim said Aldrich deserved to be “killed like a dog.”

Adriana Vance, whose son Raymond Green Vance was killed, said she wakes up screaming and doesn’t know how else to express her feelings.

“All I have left of him is the urn that I talk to every night,” she said. Aldrich “knows nothing but hate” and deserves to die, she said.

One survivor, who had celebrated a birthday that night and performed as a drag queen, expressed her forgiveness to Aldrich and stressed that the community can feel joy despite the pain.

“I’ve had to see my partner in the casket, attend my friends’ funerals and deal with unspeakable trauma,” said Wyatt Kent, whose partner Daniel Aston was killed while working behind a bar.

“I see this person as a wounded person, created by the failure of the systems around them that were supposed to help. I forgive you. We, the queer community, we are the ones who are resilient.”

Aldrich, who appeared in an orange prison uniform with a shaved head and handcuffs, faced the victims as they spoke but refused to make a statement of his own when given the opportunity. Defense attorney David Kraut made no mention of hatred or prejudice in his comments.

Kraut said there was no clear explanation for the motive for the mass murder, but cited childhood trauma, an abusive mother, online extremism, drug use and access to weapons as factors that increased the risk his client would use extreme violence.

Defense attorneys in the state’s case had pushed back against hate charges, arguing that Aldrich was high on drugs and cocaine. In phone calls with the Associated Press from prison last year, Aldrich did not directly answer a question about whether the attack was motivated by hate, saying only that it was “completely out of line.” Aldrich had previously pleaded no contest to the state’s hate charges and admitted no guilt.

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

Aldrich also investigated other mass shootings, collected weapons, shared the online manifesto of a mass shooter who called transgender a “disease” and coordinated a spam email campaign against a former supervisor who was gay, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors say Aldrich spent more than $9,000 on gun purchases from dozens of dealers between September 2020 and the attack. A hand-drawn map of Club Q with entrances and exits marked was found in Aldrich’s apartment, along with a black folder containing training materials titled “How to Deal with an Active Shooter.”

Defense attorneys in the state’s case said Aldrich is nonbinary and uses “they”/”them” pronouns, and that’s what the federal court agreement Aldrich signed said, but a prosecutor and some victims called that an attempt to avoid responsibility for hate crimes.

Aldrich visited the club at least eight times before returning wearing a tactical vest and carrying an AR-15-style rifle, first killing one person in the entrance area, then shooting bartenders and customers, and finally attacking people on the dance floor.

“The defendant was prepared to do the maximum amount of damage in the shortest amount of time possible,” Connaughty said, adding that Aldrich fired 60 shots in less than a minute.

A Navy soldier, Thomas James, grabbed the barrel of the gun, burning his hand, and an Army veteran, Richard Fiero, helped subdue Aldrich. Aldrich then shot James in the torso with a handgun, and a third person, identified in state court as Drea Norman, stepped in to hold Aldrich down, according to the agreement.

There was a chance to prevent such violence: Aldrich was arrested in June 2021. He was accused of threatening his grandparents and vowing to become “the next mass murderer” while stockpiling guns, body armor and bomb-making materials. But Aldrich’s mother and grandparents refused to cooperate, and prosecutors failed to serve subpoenas to family members who could have kept the case alive, so the charges were eventually dropped.

Aldrich was sentenced Tuesday under the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which expanded the 2009 federal law to include crimes motivated by sexual orientation, gender identity or disability.

“I’m sure the shooter believes he took our spirit that night,” said Ed Sanders, who was shot in the back and leg. “You can’t destroy our community by killing individuals. You can’t kill our love and our spirit.”