DENVER • Victims of the 2022 mass shooting at the LGBTQ+ nightclub Club Q expressed their frustrations with the government’s decision not to pursue the death penalty on Tuesday in the convicted shooter’s federal sentencing hearing.
Anderson Aldrich, convicted of state charges in the Club Q mass shooting, pleaded guilty Tuesday in federal court to killing five people and injuring nearly two dozen.
The sentencing hearing Tuesday came as a result of the 74 federal charges filed against Aldrich by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Colorado this year. The federal charges include 50 hate crime charges and 24 firearms charges.
The terms of the plea agreement and the sentence had been agreed upon by the prosecution and defense well before Aldrich’s sentencing hearing. The terms of the plea agreement included 55 concurrent life sentences and an additional 190 years in prison. Notably, the possibility of the death penalty was voided by the plea agreement if accepted by the court.
To begin the hearing, Judge Charlotte Sweeney accepted Aldrich’s guilty plea on all charges before asking the prosecuting and defense attorneys to give statements.
Aldrich’s defense attorney, David Kraut, spoke of trauma and isolation that led Aldrich to an addiction to drugs and online extremism.
“The reason Anderson (Aldrich) committed these crimes isn’t because of one characteristic,” Kraut said. “All of these factors contribute. They combined to increase the risk that Anderson would commit acts of violence.”
Prosecuting attorney Alison Connaughty spoke to the court about how no sentence or punishment would be enough, but also spoke about the importance of convicting Aldrich on the 55 hate-crime counts.
In the state-level case, Aldrich pleaded guilty to nearly all charges, but pleaded no contest to the bias-motivated crime charges. Connaughty spoke to the court about how it was important for the government to force Aldrich to admit that the Club Q shooting was a hate crime against the LGBTQ+ community.
That point was echoed by U.S. Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke at a news conference after Aldrich’s sentencing.
“We want to send a loud message: We will not tolerate hate in this country,” Clarke said at the presser.
Ultimately, Sweeney accepted the terms of the plea agreement, sentencing Aldrich to 55 life sentences in prison with an additional 150 years. The prison sentence will run concurrent to Aldrich’s state sentence, in which Aldrich was given five sentences of life in prison — one for each count of first-degree murder — and an additional 2,208 years in prison for each count of attempted first-degree murder.
It was nearly one year ago that Aldrich pleaded guilty in a packed Colorado Springs courtroom to five counts of first-degree murder and 46 counts of attempted first-degree murder. Aldrich faced 323 charges, including first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, hate crimes and more from the 4th Judicial District Attorney’s Office.
Many of the victims who spoke to the court Tuesday during impact statements expressed their displeasure with the government’s decision not to pursue the death penalty and instead offer Aldrich a plea deal.
“I don’t believe they should be allowed to live,” Jeff Aston, the father of Daniel Aston, one of the five people who died at Club Q, said to the court.
“I wish (Aldrich) was able to get the death penalty, because I would love for him to live in fear not knowing if today was his last day,” Adriana Vance, the mother of Raymond Green Vance, one of the victims who died at Club Q, said to the court.
“I hope you give him what he deserves, because he doesn’t deserve to be breathing air right now.”
“How could you even consider not killing him?” a man with the initials P.H., whose son was shot at Club Q, said to the court. “I know you are sitting there and have to do what’s right. What’s right is giving him the damn death penalty.”
“It’s time for the state of Colorado to do the right thing,” said Cheryl Norton, the mother of Ashtin Gamblin, a survivor of the Club Q attack. “You need to pay with your life. … It cannot be forgiven.”
The bulk of the 15 people who spoke to the court echoed the thoughts of Aston, Vance and Gamblin as they expressed unhappiness with Aldrich avoiding any chance of the death penalty.
Ashtin Gamblin, who spoke to the court wearing a black sweatshirt from the last concert she attended with her best friend and victim of the Club Q shooting Derrick Rump, was angry with the lack of a death penalty pursuit from the government.
“That night, there was no regard for my life. There should be no regard for (Aldrich’s),” Ashtin Gamblin said.
That sentiment, though, was not shared by all victims.
Wyatt Kent, the “soon-to-be fiancé” of Rump and a drag queen who performed at Club Q the evening of the shooting, spoke after the hearing and said that he felt the life in prison sentence was essentially a death penalty sentence as is.
“I think the death penalty is what (Aldrich) got,” Kent said. “We’re never going to see this person out of the Colorado prison system.”
Sweeney addressed the anger from many of the victims after their statements had been made, imploring everyone in the room to not let Aldrich “take anything more from them.”
Sweeney also noted that the death penalty was not something the court could have imposed at sentencing Tuesday, as a federal court requires a jury to make a determination whether someone should be sentenced to death.
Sweeney, Colorado’s first openly gay federal judge, used the homicide of Matthew Shepard to help illustrate how seeking the death penalty might not be what is best for the community to heal.
Shepard was an openly gay student at the University of Wyoming who was killed by Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson in 1998.
Sweeney, who said she listened to the sentencing of McKinney at the time, recalled how Shepard’s father spoke to the court about how a life sentence given to McKinney was the best way for everyone to move forward, and how the pursuit of the death penalty would only drag the process further.
Aldrich ended up being sentenced by Sweeney under the Matthew Shepard And James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act Of 2009.
Clarke was asked several times at the news conference about the federal government’s decision to not pursue the death penalty, but declined to comment, stating that the reasoning would remain “internal.”
The one thing that the court, victims and attorneys agreed on, though, was that despite Aldrich’s best attempts, he was unable to tear apart the LGBTQ+ community of Colorado Springs.
“You targeted this community where they live and breathe, Mr. Aldrich,” Sweeney said. “This community is stronger than you.”
Aldrich made no statement to give to the court Tuesday, saying “I’ll have the opportunity to speak in the future.”
Aldrich has been incarcerated in the Wyoming State Penitentiary, according to previous reporting from The Gazette.
Clarke confirmed at the news conference that Aldrich will continue to be held by the Colorado Department of Corrections, despite the federal conviction.
Kelly Loving, Ashley Paugh, Aston, Rump and Vance died in the shooting.
Aldrich’s mother, Laura Voepel, 46, is facing misdemeanor charges of resisting arrest and disorderly conduct after police told Voepel on Nov. 20, 2022, that Aldrich had been arrested in connection with a murder.
The misdemeanor case continued to be delayed in recent months, as Voepel awaited mental health restoration treatment out of state.
Editor’s Note: Previous reporting mistakenly had the mother of Ashtin Gamblin’s name as Sharon Gamblin instead of the correct name of Cheryl Norton.
