Club Q shooter avoids death penalty, sentenced to additional 55 life terms

DENVER ( KDVR ) – On Tuesday, Anderson Lee Aldrich was sentenced to 55 life terms after pleading guilty to federal hate crime charges along with gun charges.

This sentencing comes after Aldrich, now 24, pleaded guilty to killing five people and injuring 19 others at Club Q , an LGBTQ+ nightclub in Colorado Springs.

Aldrich is now serving an additional 55 life terms, along with his previous sentence of life in prison .

Evidence shows shooting was biased, premeditated

After pleading guilty in 2023, prosecutors focused on proving the shooting was premeditated and fueled by bias.

Prosecutors said Aldrich was involved in a spam email campaign against a former work supervisor who is gay just less than a month before the shooting. Court filings also accused Aldrich of disseminating someone else’s manifesto, which included racist and antisemitic statements and falsely claimed being transgender is a mental illness.

Defense attorneys in the state case argued that Aldrich, who not only goes by they/them, was on cocaine and medication at the time. However, investigators also found evidence that suggested the shooting was planned out beforehand.

Aldrich visited the club at least eight times before the attack, including stopping by an hour and a half before the shooting, according to prosecutors. Investigators also found a hand-drawn map of Club Q inside Aldrich’s apartment along with a binder titled “How to handle an active shooter.”

Aldrich was also sentenced to gun charges, which stemmed from spending over $9,000 on weapons-related purchases from at least 56 vendors between September 2020 and the attack on Nov. 19, 2022, according to new evidence cited by prosecutors.

Aldrich avoids death penalty in plea deal

By pleading guilty to 50 hate crimes as well as gun charges, the sentencing agreement allowed Aldrich to avoid the death penalty and instead get multiple life sentences, in addition to a 190-year sentence.

U.S. District Judge Charlotte Sweeney, the first openly gay federal judge in Colorado, accepted the plea on June 18.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.

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