He said he wished he could say goodbye to her that morning. Anthony Montalto, whose sister Gina was one of 17 people shot in the 2018 mass shooting, is pictured at the sentencing hearing for Nikolas Cruz at the Broward County Courthouse on November 1, 2022, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. “I will never be able to watch TV with her, talk about books with her. Every day I pass by her room and see that it is empty. … Every day I wake up and remember he’s not going to be there,” Montalto said. He called Nikolas Cruz a “murderous bastard” and said Cruz should have been sentenced to death. “She shouldn’t live while my sister rots in a grave,” Montalto said. Montalto said he hopes jurors who voted for life in prison will regret their decision after hearing his testimony. Parkland victim’s brother slams ‘murderous bastard’ Cruz Anthony Montalto criticized the court for deciding not to sentence gunman Nikolas Cruz to death for killing 17 people on February 14, 2018. ABCNews.com Gina Montalto’s father, Tony Montalto, added in court: “If the jury was given the evidence that was presented, there is only a logical and fact-based outcome. Unfortunately, the jury ignored the facts and went with emotion. They were worried about how they would feel… [if Cruz] was sentenced to death.” “Did they consider what kind of message their verdict sent to our nation’s students and teachers?” he continued. “Did they think about how they would explain their verdict to the victims’ siblings, as my wife and I struggled to do?” “I don’t think the case was fair to the victims. The court allowed the defense to show every aspect” of Cruz’s life before the massacre, he said, but the victims’ families could not bring photos of their loved ones to court or wear pins to honor them. “The court did everything it could to dehumanize beautiful Gina, her classmates and teachers,” he said. “My family and others had to sit like church mice in the courtroom for fear of influencing the jury.” “This injustice must be corrected. The rights of the victims must be recognized,” he stressed. Tony Montalto, whose daughter Gina was one of the 17 people killed in the 2018 mass shooting, is pictured at the sentencing hearing for Nikolas Cruz at the Broward County Courthouse on November 1, 2022, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
