DA not pursuing death penalty against Walmart shooter

EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) -- El Paso District Attorney James Montoya is speaking today about the state's capital murder case against accused Walmart shooter Patrick Crusius.

Montoya is speaking about the recent development, reported by El Paso Matters, that Crusius will no longer face the death penalty.

Tune in to watch the news conference live in the livestream player above.

UPDATE:

Montoya explained during the press conference that he spoke with the families of the victims. An overwhelming majority of them expressed that they just wanted the case to be over.

"I could not, in good conscience, continue to seek the death penalty against the wishes of so many of the victims." 

Montoya said that there was a portion of the families who were adamant about wanting the death penalty for Crusius no matter how long it took. There were also families who simply did not want to be involved in the case any longer.

A large part of Montoya's campaign when running for DA was based on continuing to seek the death penalty. He said today that he still believes in it and that Crusius deserves to die, but could not go against the wishes of that many people.

"They have told me that they want this case over with. For me to tell them, 'I hear what you say. I understand it, but no. We're going to keep doing this.' I am not going to do that."

ABC-7 also spoke with former El Paso District Attorney Bill Hicks. He said that he would have kept pursuing the death penalty.

"I'm very confident that the state had the evidence to move forward to prove not just guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, but to prove that he was going to be a future danger to society beyond a reasonable doubt." 

Crusius will have a plea hearing on Monday, April 21st where he is expected to plead guilty to capital murder and serve life in prison without possibility of parole. He will also waive any potential appeals.