The 23-year-old serving multiple life sentences for killing five people and injuring 22 in a mass shooting at a Colorado Springs LGBTQ nightclub in 2022 is expected to plead guilty to dozens of federal hate crime and weapons charges while avoiding the death penalty.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Colorado filed 74 hate crime and weapons charges against Anderson Aldrich on Jan. 5, including hate crime charges for using a firearm to cause death, bodily injury and attempt to kill in a mass shooting at Club Q on Nov. 19, 2022.
Aldrich has negotiated a plea agreement in the case, which would include serving “multiple concurrent life sentences plus additional consecutive sentences totaling 190 years imprisonment,” according to court records.
Aldrich appeared by video in court on Tuesday and pleaded not guilty to the charges, according to the Associated Press, but Aldrich’s attorney asked to schedule a change of plea hearing in the case in a notice of disposition filed Jan. 10.
“…It is anticipated that the defendant has agreed to plead guilty to all charges,” U.S. Department of Justice officials wrote in a news release Tuesday.
Aldrich, who identifies as nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns, is already serving five life sentences plus 2,208 years in prison after pleading guilty to five counts of first-degree murder and 46 counts of attempted first-degree murder in June.
Aldrich shot and killed Daniel Davis Aston, 28; Kelly Loving, 40; Ashley Paugh, 35; Derrick Rump, 38; and Raymond Green Vance, 22.
Aldrich also pleaded no contest to two bias-motivated crimes in June, though state prosecutors initially pursued 48 counts of bias-motivated crimes.
After the June sentencing, 4th Judicial District Attorney Michael Allen suggested Aldrich’s guilty plea was aimed at avoiding federal prosecution, which could include the death penalty. Colorado no longer has capital punishment.
While five of the federal charges Aldrich faces include a possible death penalty, federal prosecutors are not seeking capital punishment in the case, according to a joint motion filed on Jan. 9.
“The parties have agreed that multiple concurrent life sentences plus a consecutive sentence of 190 years imprisonment is sufficient but not greater than necessary to achieve the goals of criminal justice set forth in (federal law),” the motion states.
Allen also alleged that Aldrich identified as nonbinary in order to avoid hate crime charges and that there was no evidence they identified as nonbinary before the shooting.
The federal complaint alleges Aldrich targeted victims “because of the actual and perceived sexual orientation and gender identity,” which Aldrich has denied in interviews with the Associated Press.
Aldrich visited Club Q multiple times in the months leading up to the attack and had previously expressed hatred for police, LGBTQ people and minorities, according to state prosecutors, though he did not use homophobic slurs during or immediately after the attack.
In June 2021, Aldrich was arrested for threatening their grandparents and vowing to become “the next mass killer” while stockpiling weapons, body armor and bomb-making materials.
Those charges were later dismissed because their mother and grandparents refused to cooperate with prosecutors.
Aldrich is incarcerated at the Wyoming State Penitentiary and was moved out of state “due to safety concerns,” according to the Colorado Department of Corrections.
A plea hearing is not yet scheduled in the case.
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