Cruz, shackled and wearing a red prison jumpsuit, watched intently as Judge Elizabeth Scherer sentenced him to 17 life terms for the Feb. 14, 2018, massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in suburban Fort Lauderdale and 17 other attempted murders. those he injured. Scherer had no choice as the jury in Cruz’s three-month trial voted 9-3 on Oct. 13 to sentence him to death, but Florida law requires unanimity to impose that sentence. Cruz admitted under questioning by the judge before sentencing that he was on medication but could understand what was going on. The sentencing came after two days of parents, spouses, siblings and others of the slain victims and some of the injured survivors walking to a lectern a few feet from Cruz to speak to him face-to-face. Linda Beigel Schulmanm hugs Debbie Hixon after Hixon gave a victim impact statement during the sentencing hearing for Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooter Nikolas Cruz. (Amy Beth Bennett/Reuters)

‘Good riddance’

The judge praised the families and the injured for testifying, calling them strong, graceful and patient. “I know you’re going to be okay, because you have each other,” Scherer said. Some parents and other family members cried as he read. When it was over and Cruz was led from the courtroom, one father muttered, “Good run.” Cruz, 24, will be taken within days to the Florida Correctional System’s processing center near Miami before being placed in a maximum-security prison. Families and the injured spent two days verbally lashing out at Cruz, wishing him a painful death and lamenting that he could not be sentenced to death. “He got away with this punishment because a minority of jurors were given the power to overturn a majority decision made by people who were able to see him for what he is — an unrepentant monster who deserves no mercy,” Meghan Petty said. . Her younger sister, 14-year-old Alaina, died when Cruz fired his AR-15 semi-automatic rifle into her classroom as she stalked the halls of a three-story building for seven minutes, firing 140 rounds. He had been planning the shoot for seven months. “A person has to be incredibly sick to want to harm another person. Even more sick to stay in the desire and make a plan and unimaginably evil to carry out that plan, which not only hurt people but ended lives “, he said. Scherer agreed to the prosecution’s request that relatives of Cruz’s victims be allowed to address the court first before sentencing.
Cruz sits at the defense table during his sentencing hearing in Broward County Circuit Court in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on Tuesday. (Amy Beth Bennett/South Florida Sun Sentinel/The Associated Press)

“Where were your regrets?”

Cruz stared at the speakers but showed little emotion. Anthony Montalto III, whose older sister, 14-year-old Gina, was killed by a bullet to her chest, said Tuesday that he was at the nearby high school and heard the gunshots. He said he felt pain in his chest — he believes it was a sign of his sister’s death. “Going from being an only child to a younger sibling … is a dramatic change for anyone,” he said. He then criticized the defense’s claim that Cruz’s birth mother’s heavy drinking during pregnancy caused brain damage that led to a lifetime of erratic and sometimes violent behavior that culminated in the shooting. Cruz was 19 at the time of his attack at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, about 50 kilometers north of the courthouse in Fort Lauderdale. He had been expelled from school. Thomas Hixon’s father, school athletic director Chris Hixon, was shot when he ran at Cruz, trying to stop him. The Navy veteran fell, wounded, and tried to hide in an alcove, but Cruz walked by and shot him again. Tony Montalto hugs his son, Anthony, after Anthony gave his victim impact statement Wednesday. Montalto’s daughter Gina, Anthony’s sister, was killed in the 2018 shooting. (Amy Beth Bennett/South Florida Sun Sentinel/The Associated Press) Thomas Hixon, a Marine veteran, recalled that Cruz expressed remorse a year ago when he pleaded guilty to the killings, setting the stage for the penalty trial.
“Where was your remorse when you saw my father wounded and bleeding on the floor and decided to shoot him a third time?” Hixon told Cruz. “Your defense challenged the idea of ​​your humanity, but you had nothing for those you met on February 14.” Ines Hixon, wife of Thomas Hixon and daughter-in-law of Chris Hixon, called Cruz a “domestic terrorist.” Some of the survivors went on to organize a youth movement for tighter gun regulations in the United States, which has the highest rate of private gun ownership in the world and where mass shootings have become frequent.