After pleading guilty to five counts of first-degree murder and 46 counts of attempted first-degree murder last week, the gunman of the Club Q shooting received five consecutive life sentences. Emotional testimonies from both survivors and victims‘ family members were heard throughout the day. Many asked the judge to consider the maximum sentence the state would allow, others said they hoped the killer would rot in prison.
The sentencing day served as the lone opportunity for those affected by the tragedy to address not only the shooter but the judge directly.
“I will never forgive you for this,” says Sabrina Aston, the mother of Daniel Aston, a bartender at Club Q who was shot and killed.
“This hole in my heart will be here every day until I die. You have to live with this shame in your small cell until you die. Not for one minute do I believe your regret. You robbed him of ever fulfilling his dreams.”
Curt Paugh, the husband of another victim, Ashley Paugh, says it was an injustice that the shooter would get to “eat three meals a day” while his wife is dead.
“He will rot in loneliness and hate,” he says, weeping. “My wife’s name will live on, Ashley Marie Paugh will live on… Ashley will never be forgotten.”
Adriana Vance, the mother of Raymond Green Vance, says she is trying to find a way to move on without him.
“This man doesn’t deserve to go on. What matters now is that he never sees a sunrise or a sunset,” she says.
While the shooter declined to address the victims and their families directly, spending most of the afternoon staring at the floor, one of their public defenders, Joseph Archambault, spoke for them.
“They are deeply remorseful, and they are deeply sorry for all the people they killed,” Archambault says.
“They know that they can’t do anything to make it better, but they do want everyone to know they’re sorry, they are remorseful, and Mx. Aldrich does ask the court to accept the plea deal and sentence.”
It is still unclear whether the gunman will receive federal hate crime charges, though Colorado’s FBI Special Agent in Charge Mark Michalek confirmed at a press briefing that they have opened up a federal investigation into the shooting. That could carry a death penalty in a federal case, something that state prosecutors say they welcomed.
Photo courtesy of social media
