Fourth Judicial District Attorney and prosecutor Michael Allen spoke to The Gazette last week regarding Club Q shooter Anderson Aldrich’s claims of being nonbinary — how they’re a “thumb in the eye” to the LGBTQ+ community, and how Aldrich only took on the nonbinary identity in an attempt to avoid hate crime charges and the federal death penalty. 

Aldrich fatally shot five people and injured more than 20 at the nightclub on North Academy Boulevard on Nov. 19. Aldrich faced 323 charges, including first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, hate crimes and more from the 4th Judicial District Attorney’s Office.

On June 26, Aldrich pleaded guilty to 51 charges, including five counts of first-degree murder and 46 counts of attempted first-degree murder. He was sentenced to five life sentences and 2,000-plus years in prison. In addition, Aldrich received three years, 164 days in prison for bias-motivated crime. 

Allen has spoken out since Aldrich’s guilty plea, saying that he believes Aldrich’s claims of being nonbinary are dubious at best, and last week talked about the damage those claims have done to the LGBTQ+ community. 

“It’s another thumb in the eye to that community,” Allen said. “Unfortunately, it’s another pain point for people that were impacted by this case — that (Aldrich) is trying to claim he was in that community when in fact, he was never in that community.”

Allen isn’t the only person who finds Aldrich’s claims disingenuous. At Aldrich’s sentencing hearing, several victims told the court they believe Aldrich is lying. 

“If (Aldrich) is nonbinary, then I am Floyd Mayweather Jr.,” Cheryl Norton said. “Do I look like a boxer to you?”

At Aldrich’s preliminary hearing, the prosecution presented evidence that suggested Aldrich had never previously identified as nonbinary. During the hearing, Colorado Springs detective Rebecca Joines testified that Aldrich helped run a neo-Nazi website, made several posts about having a “hatred” toward members of the LGBTQ+ community, and that friends of Aldrich had never previously heard Aldrich identify as nonbinary. 

Victims of Club Q shooting speak on anger and loss at sentencing

Allen told The Gazette he believed Aldrich only took on the identifier to bolster a case against charges of bias-motivated crimes. 

“There is no evidence anywhere that this defendant identified as nonbinary prior to the legal proceedings getting underway,” Allen said. “Even in the initial aftermath of the shooting, there was no indication from (Aldrich) or anyone associated with him that he identified as nonbinary.”

The decision for Aldrich to plead no contest to two counts of bias-motivated crime, according to Allen, came as a result of Allen and the rest of the prosecution denying the defense’s first offer of a plea deal, in which Aldrich would plead guilty to everything except bias-motivated crime charges.

Allen said that, due to the clear hate crime that occurred, it was incredibly important to the prosecution team and the victims that Aldrich be given jail time for bias-motivated crimes. 

“The first offer we got (from Aldrich’s defense), we actually did reject,” Allen said. “Whatever deal we do is going to have to include the bias-motivated charges, and that was really because of conversations we were having with victim family members. … They felt it was important that we keep those charges as a part of any plea.”

Why Aldrich’s defense made a point of pleading no contest — which, from a sentencing standpoint makes no difference as Aldrich was given the maximum possible sentence for pleading no contest — was, according to Allen, to help with the defense’s primary motive for the plea deal: to avoid the federal death penalty. 

Anderson Aldrich pleads guilty in Club Q massacre, gets 5 life sentences and 2,000-plus years in prison

The state of Colorado outlawed the death penalty in 2020, meaning the maximum possible penalty for charges at the state level is life in prison without parole. However, if Aldrich is charged federally, the possibility of a death penalty enters the picture.

“From their perspective, it gives them (the defense) an avenue to say that they didn’t admit to this being a hate crime,” Allen said. “If, in fact, the federal court system picks this up. … I think it’s really a mitigating factor for them.” 

“I believe there is a high probability of being found guilty at trial on those counts, so I’m pleading no contest,” Aldrich stated in court on June 26 after pleading no contest to two counts of bias-motivated crime.

Whether it would be an effective mitigation strategy for Aldrich, Allen says he is unsure. 

At a press conference after the sentencing hearing, FBI Special Agent Mark Michalek announced that the bureau had opened an investigation into Aldrich. Allen said that while he isn’t sure if federal prosecutors will seek the death penalty or whether Aldrich’s defense attorneys had spoken to federal prosecutors before the plea deal, he doesn’t view any reason to charge Aldrich federally unless the death penalty is pursued.

“The only benefit to that would be if they were going to pursue the death penalty. Otherwise, I think to a certain extent if there’s a pursuit on that, but there’s no actual effort towards the death penalty, then I think you’re just giving victims false hope that the death penalty could be a result, and I think you’re forcing them to relive this thing longer than they would have to.”

Allen said the sentencing was an odd feeling for him and the prosecution team, coming less than a year after the shooting occurred. 

“There’s part of me that wanted to make (Aldrich) sit through the horror he carried out on people; selfishly, that’s the downside to the plea … but this is by far and away the best result for the victims.” 

Since the plea, Aldrich has been booked at a Denver prison. 

Club Q killer booked into Colorado prison