Suspected Club Q shooter heading to trial following conclusion of preliminary hearing

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KKTV) - Wednesday, Anderson Lee Aldrich appeared in person in the El Paso County courthouse, for a preliminary hearing. According to a survivor 11 News spoke with Aldrich was sitting just feet away from her.

“Nothing is good enough,” Club Q survivor Ashtin Gablin said. “He took my friends he took people I don’t know honestly, won’t be good enough.”

According to Colorado Springs Police, Aldrich reportedly entered Club Q six times prior to the shooting. 11 News spoke with former Colorado District Attorney George Brauchler who was the lead prosecutor for the aurora movie theater shooting about this case.

“When you are caught, red-handed with the murder weapons in the club Q by people who you were trying to kill, you don’t have the option of saying it wasn’t me,” Brauchler said. “You don’t have the option of saying it was an accident.”

During the preliminary hearing it was revealed Aldrich had used derogatory terms in reference to the LGBTQIA+ community on social media to friends. A sketch of Club Q was also found in Aldrich’s apartment during a search warrant after the shooting according to a detective’s testimony.

“The prosecution has to prove be on a reasonable doubt that you knew right from wrong based on societal standards or morality, and that you conform the intent to murder after deliberating on it. … It’s a burden that really falls 100% on the prosecution,” Brauchler said.

Aldrich’s public defenders pointed to medications in the suspect’s name for schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, anxiety, depression and mood regulation. Brauchler says the defense could try a not guilty by reason of insanity plea.

“The drugs, of course, cannot really directly impact it, because voluntary intoxication is not a defense to murder,” Brauchler said. “But combined with some of his other mental health things, it could lead to some kind of impaired mental condition. Maybe it even gets them to a point of being able to suggest to a jury insanity. But that doesn’t mean that a jury will buy that.”

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