Kansas man pleads guilty to hate crime charges in death of immigrant

A Kansas man who killed an Indian man and wounded another at a suburban Kansas City bar after shouting “get out of my country!” pleaded guilty to three federal hate-crime charges on Monday, according to The Associated Press.

Adam Purinton had faced a death sentence for the federal charges but, under the plea, attorneys will recommend he be sentenced to life in prison for each of the three counts, according to The Kansas City Star. As part of the plea agreement, his sentences will run consecutively.

Purinton pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and two counts of attempted first-degree murder in a state court for the death of Srinivas Kuchibhotla last year, according to the AP.

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The shooting at the Olathe, Kan., bar also wounded Alok Madasani, Kuchibhotla’s friend, and Ian Grillot, who tried to intervene in the incident.

Purinton had been asked to leave the bar after voicing racial slurs toward Kuchibhotla and Madasani, according to witnesses. Madasani said that Purinton asked the two men if their “status was legal,” according to a court affidavit.

The shooter drove 70 miles to Clinton, Mo., after the shooting. There, he confessed the shooting to a restaurant bartender, telling him that he shot two “Iranian men,” according to court records.

He is set to be sentenced for the federal charges on July 2.