June 18 (UPI) — Convicted mass murderer Anderson Lee Aldrich, who killed 5 at a Colorado gay nightclub in 2022, on Tuesday entered guilty pleas to federal charges accusing him of violating federal hate crime laws.
Aldrich, 24, pleaded guilty to 74 counts of violating the federal Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009 in addition to firearms offenses for his Nov. 19, 2022, mass shooting at the Club Q LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado Springs, Colo.
Federal prosecutors and Aldrich in January reached a plea agreement that removed the death penalty in exchange for the guilty plea entered Tuesday.
“Aldrich entered Club Q armed with a loaded assault weapon and began firing,” the Department of Justice said in a Jan. 16 press release announcing the plea agreement.
Aldrich “continued firing until Aldrich was subdued by patrons of the club.”
The DOJ said Aldrich attacked the club’s patrons due to their “actual or perceived sexual orientation and gender identity.”
Aldrich shot and killed five people and injured 19 others during the attack.
Aldrich identifies as nonbinary and initially pleaded not guilty to the federal hate crimes charges.
U.S. District Court of Colorado Judge Charlotte Sweeney sentenced Sweeney to 55 life sentences plus 190 years to ensure he stays imprisoned for the rest of his life.
His guilty plea and sentence for the federal charges are in addition to his prior guilty plea on dozens of state charges.
In June 2023, he pleaded guilty to state charges of five counts of first-degree murder and 46 counts of attempted murder in the first degree and no contest to two bias-motivated offenses.
Assistant U.S. attorneys Alison Connaughty and Bryan Fields and Civil Rights Division trial attorney Maura White prosecuted the federal case against Aldrich.
