El Paso Walmart gunman’s federal hate crimes sentencing hearing begins Wednesday

The sentencing hearing for the El Paso Walmart gunman on dozens of federal hate crimes and firearms charges is set to begin Wednesday.

Patrick Crusius, 24, pleaded guilty in February to the racist 2021 massacre that killed 23 people.

Crusius had initially pleaded not guilty to the federal charges, but requested a rearraignment hearing after federal prosecutors agreed to not seek the death penalty in their case.

The sentencing hearing is scheduled to begin Wednesday at 9 a.m. MT in El Paso federal court and will likely “take several days,” the district court said.

The hearing was initially set to begin on June 30, though both parties requested in a joint motion that it be pushed back to “allow for the greatest number of participants to attend the entirety of the proceedings.”

Read more: ABC News