Jury recommends Parkland school shooter Nikolas Cruz get life in prison, not death penalty
A Broward County, Florida, jury recommended Thursday that Parkland shooter Nikolas Cruz should get life in prison but not the death penalty in the deaths of 17 people. (WSVN)
A Broward County, Florida, jury recommended Thursday that Parkland shooter Nikolas Cruz should get life in prison but not the death penalty in the deaths of 17 people.
The jury failed to reach a unanimous verdict on a recommendation for the death penalty on all counts.
Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer set sentencing for Nov. 1, when victim impact statements will be delivered.
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The verdict came in the second day of deliberations, 15 minutes after jurors arrived and examined the gun Cruz used.
Chief Assistant Public Defender David Wheeler puts his arm around Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooter Nikolas Cruz as they await a verdict in his trial at the Broward County Courthouse in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. (Amy Beth Bennett/South Florida Sun Sentinel via AP, Pool)
Cruz, 24, pleaded guilty last year to the murders of 14 students and three staff members at Parkland's Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Feb. 14, 2018 — a date that he said he picked so the school would never celebrate Valentine's Day again.
Cruz fired volleys from an AR-15-style semi-automatic down hallways and into classrooms for about seven minutes, returning to those who lay wounded to kill them.
Cruz said he purchased the rifle almost exactly a year before the shooting and began to seriously plan it about seven months in advance.
At one point in the deliberations, jurors came back to the courtroom to have the testimony of two doctors read back to them about the mental state of Cruz.
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Cruz researched previous mass shooters, saying he tried to learn from their experience.
From left, Abby Hoyer, Tom and Gena Hoyer and Michael Schulman react during the reading of jury instructions in the penalty phase of the trial of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooter Nikolas Cruz at the Broward County Courthouse in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. The Hoyers' son, Luke, and Schulman's son, Scott Beigel, were killed in the 2018 shootings. Abby Hoyer is Luke Hoyer's sister. (Amy Beth Bennett/South Florida Sun Sentinel via AP, Pool)
During the three-month penalty trial that determined his sentence, prosecutors played security videos of the shooting and showed gruesome crime scene and autopsy photos.
Teachers and students testified about seeing other students and staff killed, while parents and spouses gave emotional statements.
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Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer set sentencing for Nov. 1, when victim impact statements will be delivered. (Amy Beth Bennett/South Florida Sun Sentinel via AP, Pool)
Cruz’s lead attorney Melisa McNeill and her team argued that his birth mother’s heavy drinking during pregnancy left him with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder.
His adoptive mother could not cope with his severe mental and emotional deficits, which were never properly treated, McNeill told jurors.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
