Colorado Club Q mass shooting suspect pleads guilty; nets over 2,000-year life sentence
Anderson Lee Aldrich, 23, pleaded guilty on Monday to the mass shooting at LGBTQ bar Club Q on Nov. 22, 2022, killing five and injuring 19 others.
Killed in the shooting were Daniel Aston, 28; Derrick Rump, 38; Raymond Green Vance, 22; Kelly Loving, 40; and Ashley Paugh, 34.
Aldrich, who identifies as nonbinary and uses the pronouns they/them, was charged with 323 criminal accounts, including charges of first-degree murder, bias-motivated crime and first and second-degree assault.
The shooter was sentenced to five consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole.
Judge Michael McHenry added an additional 2,208 years in prison.
The judge said, “The sentence of this court is the judgment of the people of the state of Colorado that such hate will not be tolerated and that the LGBTQ+ community is as much a part of the family of humanity as you are,” per ABC News.
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The state of Colorado banned the death penalty in 2020, so prosecutors were unable to request the death sentence. However, a federal investigation has been opened and capital punishment can be given in federal court cases.
According to CNN, 4th Judicial District Attorney Michael Allen said in a news conference following the sentencing, “The death penalty still matters even if it’s not law in the state of Colorado. ... The threat of the death penalty in the federal system (was) a big part of what motivated this defendant to take this plea in our case.”
Allen continued, “Cases like this are why the death penalty should exist in the state of Colorado, the victims in this case deserve the ultimate punishment that the law can provide,” he said.
Aldrich did not wish to speak before the court but asked the defense attorney to explain that “they are deeply remorseful.”
Many family members of the victims spoke before the court and defendant with deep pain and anger for their loss.
The father of Daniel Aston said that without his son, “A positive force has been taken out of the world. He was in the prime of his life. He was happy, he had hopes, dreams and plans that will never be realized,” Aston said. “Losing him has caused us incredible grief and sadness,” per NBC News.
Adriana Vance, the mother of Raymond Green Vance, described her son as a loving and gentle man. “This man doesn’t deserve to go on. What matters now is that he never sees the sun rise or sunset,” she said in anger over the loss of her son’s life.
“Your actions reflect the deepest malice of the human heart,” McHenry concluded following the plea deal. “And malice is almost always born of ignorance and fear.”
