Accused Club Q Shooter Pleads Guilty in Court

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — The 23-year-old charged with carrying out a deadly shooting rampage at Club Q in Colorado Springs pleaded guilty Monday to dozens of charges of murder and attempted murder, avoiding a prolonged trial over a deadly attack on members of the LGBTQ+ community.

Under the terms of a plea agreement reached with prosecutors, the defendant, Anderson Lee Aldrich, separately pleaded “no contest” to two hate-crime charges.

The defendant will receive multiple life sentences, adding up to hundreds of years in prison, and will also give up any right to appeal.

The defendant, who identifies as nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns, stood Monday in a courtroom packed with victims and relatives of the dead, and tersely answered a litany of questions from Judge Michael McHenry about whether the defendant understood the terms of the plea.

McHenry then read a list of dozens of names — the five people who were killed and others who were wounded or targeted — and then asked: “How do you plead?”

“Guilty.”

The agreement was reached after months of agonizing private discussions among prosecutors, survivors and victims’ families over how to reach justice in the Club Q shooting.

Some victims initially wanted a public trial, in the hope of learning precisely how and why the shooter had attacked the club, and what warning signs had been missed. Others said they did not want to suffer the pain of a drawn-out trial, and were relieved that the criminal case was ending.

Several survivors of the attack said it was important that the shooter acknowledge an anti-LGBTQ+ bias behind the rampage. They wanted formal recognition that Club Q and its patrons were attacked because of their identities, in a massacre deliberately calculated to shatter a sanctuary for the LGBTQ+ community in Colorado Springs.

But in pleading guilty Monday, Aldrich offered no details about why they carried out the shooting, and little explanation beyond a bare-bones admission using legal language. They did not directly admit to committing hate crimes in targeting Club Q, but instead said they were pleading “no contest” because it was likely that they would be convicted at trial.

The five people killed that night were Daniel Aston and Derrick Rump, who were employees of Club Q, and Kelly Loving, Raymond Green Vance and Ashley Paugh, who were Club Q patrons.

For months, some survivors and relatives of victims have made a point of attending each hearing as the case moved forward. Some said it was difficult to keep their anger and grief in check as they sat in the courtroom, listening to graphic details of the rampage.

Legal experts said the shooter’s gender identity alone did not preclude hate-crimes charges in the case. Prosecutors said the defendant had a “particular disdain” for the LGBTQ+ community.

“Those are my friends’ lives,” said Ashtin Gamblin, who was hit with nine shots as she worked the door of Club Q on the night of the attack. “They were targeted. We were targeted because we are a part of the LGBTQ community. There’s absolutely no doubt why he chose Club Q.”

In May, some victims took the first legal step toward filing a lawsuit against the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office in Colorado Springs. In a notice of intent to file suit, the victims say that under Colorado’s red-flag laws, Aldrich’s guns should have been seized after Aldrich made a bomb threat against some relatives in 2021 and expressed an intention to become “the next mass killer.” An investigation was ended when the relatives refused to testify, law enforcement officials have said.

The U.S. Attorney’s office in Denver could still pursue federal hate-crime charges against the defendant, which could result in a death sentence.

Because Colorado no longer has the death penalty, life in prison is the harshest punishment the defendant could receive under state laws.

Defense lawyers have said that their client was not driven by hatred and have instead pointed to mental illness, saying that their client had been taking medication for schizophrenia, depression and anxiety. The defendant expressed remorse in a recent interview with The Associated Press and indicated they planned to take responsibility for the massacre.

Some victims who attended previous hearings said the defense statements were a maddening rationalization for the unthinkable. Matthew Haynes, Club Q’s owner, pointed out that millions of Americans have dealt with mental illness and taken medication without committing mass murder.

Adriana Vance, whose son Raymond Green Vance was killed in the attack, said that the victims of Club Q had bonded.

“We formed a family,” she said.

As Vance prepared to head to court Monday, she said she had been trying to focus on her 9-year-old son and keeping his life busy with trips to museums, the pool and the Elitch Gardens amusement park in Denver. She said she was not sure how to navigate the loss, the grief, raising her son without his big brother — any of it.

“I’ve never been through anything like this before,” she said. “I’m trying to do the best I can.”

This article originally appeared in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/26/us/club-q-shooting-colorado-springs-court.html">The New York Times</a>.