FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) A jury spared Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz from the death penalty Thursday for killing 17 people at a Parkland high school in 2018, sending him to prison for the remainder of his life in a decision that left many families of the victims angered, baffled and in tears.
The jurys recommendation came after seven hours of deliberations over two days, ending a three-month trial that included graphic videos, photos and testimony from the massacre and its aftermath, heart-wrenching testimony from victims family members and a tour of the still blood-spattered building.
We are beyond disappointed with the outcome today, Lori Alhadeff, whose daughter, Alyssa was killed, said at a news conference after the jurys decision was announced.
This should have been the death penalty, 100%. Seventeen people were brutally murdered on Feb. 14, 2018. I sent my daughter to school and she was shot eight times. I am so beyond disappointed and frustrated with this outcome . I cannot understand. I just dont understand.ADVERTISEMENT
Under Florida law, a death sentence requires a unanimous vote on at least one count. Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer will formally issue the life sentences Nov. 1. Relatives, along with the students and teachers Cruz wounded, will be given the opportunity to speak at the sentencing hearing.EducationFate of Missouri boarding school on hold as hearings delayedIndia's top court split on school ban on Muslim headscarvesWith teachers in short supply, states ease job requirementsEXPLAINER: What's next in the Parkland school shooter trial?
Cruz, his hair unkempt, largely sat hunched over and stared at the table as the jurys recommendations were read. Rumblings grew from the family section packed with about three dozen parents, spouses and other relatives of the victims as life sentences were announced. Many shook their heads, looked angry or covered their eyes, as the judge spent 50 minutes reading the jurys decision for each victim. Some parents sobbed as they left court.
The jury found there were aggravating factors for each victim, however, they also found mitigating factors. And the jury could not agree that the aggravating factors that would have warranted the death penalty outweighed the mitigating ones.
Tony Montalto, father of Gina Montalto, said: How can the mitigating factors make this shooter, who they recognized committed this terrible act acts, plural shooting, some victims more than once on a pass, pressing the barrel of his weapon to my daughters chest. That doesnt outweigh that poor little whats his name had a tough upbringing? ADVERTISEMENT
He added: Our justice system should have been used to punish this shooter to the fullest extent of the law.
Cruz, 24, pleaded guilty a year ago to murdering 14 students and three staff members and wounding 17 others on Feb. 14, 2018. Cruz said he chose Valentines Day to make it impossible for Stoneman Douglas students to celebrate the holiday ever again.
The massacre is the deadliest mass shooting that has ever gone to trial in the U.S. Nine other people in the U.S. who fatally shot at least 17 people died during or immediately after their attacks by suicide or police gunfire. The suspect in the 2019 massacre of 23 at an El Paso, Texas, Walmart is awaiting trial. ADVERTISEMENT
Lead prosecutor Mike Satz kept his case simple for the seven-man, five-woman jury. He focused on Cruzs eight months of planning, the seven minutes he stalked the halls of a three-story classroom building, firing 140 shots with an AR-15-style semi-automatic rifle, and his escape.
He played security videos of the shooting and showed gruesome crime scene and autopsy photos. Teachers and students testified about watching others die. He took the jury to the fenced-off building, which remains blood-stained and bullet-pocked. v gave tearful and angry statements.
Cruzs lead attorney Melisa McNeill and her team never questioned the horror he inflicted, but focused on their belief that his birth mothers heavy drinking during pregnancy left him with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder. Their experts said his bizarre, troubling and sometimes violent behavior starting at age 2 was misdiagnosed as attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, meaning he never got the proper treatment. That left his widowed adoptive mother overwhelmed, they said.ADVERTISEMENT
The defense cut its case short, calling only about 25 of the 80 witnesses they said would testify. They never brought up Cruzs high school years or called his younger half-brother, Zachary, whom they accused of bullying.
In rebuttal, Satz and his team contended that Cruz did not suffer from fetal alcohol damage but has antisocial personality disorder in lay terms, hes a sociopath. Their witnesses said Cruz faked brain damage during testing and that he was capable of controlling his actions, but chose not to. For example, they pointed to his employment as a cashier at a discount store where he never had any disciplinary issues.
Prosecutors also played numerous video recordings of Cruz discussing the crime with their mental health experts where he talked about his planning and motivation.
The defense alleged on cross-examination that Cruz was sexually molested and raped by a 12-year-old neighbor when he was 9.