The booking photo of Payton S. Gendron (Erie County District Attorney via FOX News) BUFFALO, N.Y. - The white man who killed 10 Black people at a Buffalo, New York, supermarket made his first appearance in federal court on hate crime charges Thursday, and the judge urged prosecutors to quickly decide whether to pursue the death penalty given the "substantial" cost of those cases.
In a brief proceeding, presiding Magistrate Judge H. Kenneth Schroeder said Payton Gendron was eligible to be represented by public defenders based on his financial situation.
Fielding a series of questions from the judge mostly with "yes" or "no" responses, Gendron said he had not been employed in a year, had $16 in a bank account, had no car and two shares of Disney stock.Gendron has been held without bail since his arrest shortly after the May 14 attack at a Tops Friendly Supermarket, which also left three people wounded.He appeared in U.S.
District Court on a criminal complaint charging him with 10 counts each of hate crime resulting in death and using a firearm to commit murder.