The suspect in a mass shooting at LGBTQ bar Club Q in Colorado Springs, Colorado, that left five people dead accepted a plea deal Monday.
Anderson Lee Aldrich, who identifies as nonbinary, has pleaded guilty to five counts of murder in the first degree, 46 counts of attempted murder in the first degree. They pleaded no contest to two bias-motivated crimes.
Aldrich will receive five consecutive life sentences without the possibility for parole on the murder charges, according to Judge Michael McHenry. Aldrich will also receive 46 consecutive 48-year sentences for the attempted murder counts followed by mandatory periods of parole, according to the judge.
They will plead no contest to "a class five felony bias-motivated crime and class one misdemeanor bias-motivated crime" with associated sentences, according to McHenry.
Anderson Lee Aldrich, 22, the suspect in the mass shooting at an LGBTQ nightclub appears with state public defenders Joseph Archambault and Michael Bowman before a judge during his advisement hearing in a video link from jail in Colorado Springs, Colo., Nov. 23, 2022, in a court artist sketch.
Jane Rosenberg/Reuters
Investigators and witnesses said Aldrich allegedly opened fire as soon as they walked into Club Q before midnight on Nov. 19, 2022. Patrons at the venue tackled Aldrich, subduing them until police arrived, according to witnesses.
Daniel Davis Aston, Kelly Loving, Derrick Rump, Ashley Paugh and Raymond Green Vance died in the attack. At least 19 people were also injured in the shooting.
In February, preliminary hearings were held on whether the case against Aldrich was strong enough to move forward. Their defense attorneys focused on Aldrich's mental health and highlighted Aldrich's history of drug use and claimed they suffered abuse at home to counter the messaging that Aldrich was motivated by hate.
"Aldrich's behavior after this incident says they're sorry, upset and emotional about what they did," defense attorney Joseph Archambault said in court. "It's categorically different than someone who targets a group, and that's not what Aldrich did."
Lead investigators for the state said Aldrich administered and ran a website that hosted a "neo Nazi white supremacist" shooting training video, according to testimony from Lead Detective Rebecca Joines in the preliminary hearings. Joines also said that Aldrich used gay and racial slurs when playing video games online, in testimony aimed at Aldrich's bias charges.
The defense has not openly commented on the case, as per Office of the State Public Defender policies.
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