The self-described white nationalist who killed 23 people at a Texas Walmart in a 2019 attack targeting Latinos was given 90 consecutive life sentences by a federal judge Friday, after two days of emotional courtroom statements from victims and their families.

Patrick Crusius, 24, was sentenced in an El Paso courthouse on federal hate-crime charges, to which he pleaded guilty in February. He did not face the death penalty in this case, but could still in a Texas case that will go to trial as soon as next year.

Crusius killed 23 people and injured 22 others in the Aug. 3, 2019, mass shooting at a Walmart in El Paso. Seeking to kill Hispanic people, he drove more than 650 miles from the Dallas area to carry out the massacre in a city near the U.S.-Mexico border. He posted a hate-filled manifesto online before the shooting that used white-supremacist rhetoric to blame his actions on a "Hispanic invasion."

It was among the deadliest attacks on Latinos in modern U.S. history, devastating dozens of families and deeply shaking communities in both the United States and Mexico.

"We hope this sentence will bring some small measure of justice to those impacted by this massacre of innocent people targeted for no other reason than their Hispanic identity and national origin," Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department's civil rights division said in a statement.

The attack, Clarke said, "stands as one of the most horrific acts of white nationalist-driven violence in modern times."

Four years after the shooting - the deadliest in the United States since 2017 - this week's sentencing hearing provided an opportunity for survivors and victims' families to confront him. For two days, witnesses spoke to Crusius directly, expressing grief, anger and anguish.

It was also a rare chance to see a mass shooter prosecuted in a case with a high victim toll: Of the six deadliest shootings in U.S. history, El Paso is the only one in which the gunman has faced the justice system, rather than dying by suicide or police gunshot on the day of the attack.

"You left children without their parents, you left spouses without their spouses, and we still need them," Bertha Benavides, whose husband, Arturo, was killed, told Crusius, according to the AP.

Francisco Javier Rodriguez, whose 15-year-old son Javier was killed, also addressed Crusius: "Look at me, you coward. Look at my son's picture," Rodriguez said in court, ABC 7 KVIA reported. "Because of you, he never graduated from high school. I carry my son's ashes with me everywhere I go."

Crusius's attorney, Joe Spencer, told The Washington Post that Crusius suffered from mental illness and had lost touch with reality. Crusius did not speak at the three-day hearing and did not show a reaction as the sentence was read.

Crusius agreed to the 90 life sentences in his plea agreement, one for each count on which he was indicted - 45 counts of a hate-crime-related charge and 45 counts of using a firearm during violent crimes. He also pleaded guilty to other hate-crime and firearm charges relating to the 22 people injured.

U.S. District Judge David C. Guaderrama recommended Crusius be held at a maximum-security prison in Colorado and that he receive treatment for a "severe mental health condition."

The 90 life sentences "guarantee that Patrick Crusius will spend the rest of his life in prison for his deadly, racist rampage," Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement.

Spencer said he did not believe a jury would give Crusius the death penalty, because of his mental illness.

Prosecutors in the ongoing Texas case expect to schedule the trial after October or November, El Paso County District Attorney Bill D. Hicks said at a Thursday news conference.

"We are still going to be seeking the death penalty on the Walmart shooter," Hicks said. "I am committed to seeking justice for the people of this community."

Spencer spoke on Crusius's behalf before Guaderrama delivered the sentence, describing him as having a broken brain.

Crusius reportedly smirked, rolled his eyes or smiled at times as witnesses spoke in court. When asked by the son of a victim whether he regretted carrying out the mass shooting, Crusius nodded yes, according to news reports.

Spencer said that Crusius has suffered "severe mental illness" since birth and was struggling with violent thoughts and delusions.

Violent thoughts "really started getting hold of his brain and he lost touch with reality," Spencer said. "The psychosis just did not let him understand the reality nor the nature of what he was doing."

On Aug. 3, 2019, Crusius drove to the Walmart from the Dallas area with an AK-47-style rifle and 1,000 rounds of ammunition, according to his indictment. He opened fire outside the store, then continued shooting inside.

After the massacre, Crusius left the store. He surrendered to police officers at an intersection, getting out of his car and saying, "I'm the shooter."

It happened just hours before a gunman killed nine people and injured others in a mass shooting in Dayton, Ohio. The double tragedies sparked national outrage and another push among gun-control activists.

El Paso, which shares the U.S. border with Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, has a population of more than 677,000 and is largely Latino. Evidence quickly emerged that Crusius had been motivated by white-supremacist beliefs.

In the manifesto, Crusius said he was "defending my country from cultural and ethnic replacement" that was occurring due to a "Hispanic invasion of Texas" and cited a white-supremacist conspiracy theory that white people are being replaced with immigrants. He described himself as a white nationalist in the document, according to the Justice Department.

After being taken into custody, Crusius told police he had been targeting "Mexicans," authorities reported in case filings. He admitted in this year's guilty plea proceedings that he targeted the Walmart because he believed Hispanic people would be there and that he wrote the manifesto, the Justice Department said in February.

"I don't forgive him. I don't think he deserves anyone's forgiveness. I don't think he deserves anything," Amaris Vega, the niece of victim Teresa Sanchez, told KFOX.

"My message to the shooter was that he wanted to take down Mexicans. He wanted to get rid of the Hispanic people here in El Paso. But he didn't do that. He failed," she said. "He didn't win."

Those killed were: Andre Anchondo, 23; Jordan Anchondo, 24; Arturo Benavides, 60; Jorge Calvillo García, 61; Guillermo Garcia, 36; Leonardo Campos, 41; Maribel Hernandez, 56; Adolfo Cerros Hernández, 68; Sara Esther Regalado, 66; Angelina Englisbee, 86; Raul Flores, 83; Maria Flores, 77; Alexander Gerhard Hoffmann, 66; David Johnson, 63; Luis Juarez, 90; Maria Eugenia Legarreta, 58; Ivan Filiberto Manzano, 41; Gloria Irma Márquez, 61; Elsa Mendoza, 57; Margie Reckard, 63; Javier Amir Rodriguez, 15; Teresa Sanchez, 82; and Juan de Dios Velázquez, 77.