The Parkland school shooter avoided the death penalty after a jury recommended he be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the February 2018 massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida — a move that left some of the victims’ loved ones disappointed. and angry.
Thursday’s jury recommendation, which comes after a months-long trial to decide Nikolas Cruz’s punishment, is not an official sentence. Broward Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer is still expected to issue the gunman’s formal sentence on Nov. 1. Under Florida law, however, he cannot be removed from the commission for life.
Families of the gunman’s victims bowed or shook their heads as verdict forms for each of the 17 people he killed were read in court Thursday morning. The jury found that the aggravating factors presented by prosecutors did not outweigh the mitigating circumstances — aspects of Cruz’s life and upbringing that his defense attorneys said warranted only a life sentence.
None of the jurors looked in the direction of the victims’ families as their verdicts were read, but instead looked down or straight ahead. Cruz – flanked by his lawyers, wearing a blue and gray sweater over a collared shirt and glasses – sat blankly, staring at the table in front of him.
Live updates: Jury reaches verdict in Nikolas Cruz’s sentencing trial
Tony Montalto, father of 14-year-old victim Gina Montalto, called the jury’s recommendation “a blow” to the victims’ families, lamenting that “the monster that killed them will live to see another day.”
“This shooter did not deserve compassion,” he said outside the courtroom after the jury’s findings were read. “Did he show compassion to Gina when he put the gun to her chest and chose to pull the trigger or any of the other three times he shot her? Was it compassionate?’
Cruz, now 24, pleaded guilty last October to 17 counts of murder and 17 counts of attempted murder in the Parkland, Florida, shooting that killed 14 students and three school staff members and injured 17 others. Because Cruz confessed guilty of all charges, the trial phase was skipped and the court went directly to the sentencing phase.
Prosecutors asked the jury to sentence the gunman to death, arguing that Cruz’s decision to shoot was not only particularly heinous or cruel, but premeditated and calculated and unrelated, as the defense claimed, to any neurological or intellectual deficits.
To make their case, prosecutors outlined Cruz’s detailed planning for the shooting, as well as comments he made online expressing his desire to commit mass murder.
In their case, the defendant’s defense attorneys said Cruz had neurodevelopmental disorders stemming from prenatal alcohol exposure and presented evidence and witnesses who claimed his mother had used drugs and drank alcohol while pregnant with him. Cruz’s stepmother was not open about it with health professionals or educators, preventing him from receiving appropriate interventions, the defense claimed.
Of the 12 jurors, three voted against the death penalty, jury foreman Benjamin Thomas told CNN affiliate WFOR, saying, “I don’t like how it turned out, but that’s how the jury system works.”
“There was one with a hard ‘no,’ she couldn’t do it, and two others ended up voting the same way,” Thomas said.
The woman who was tough no “didn’t think because she was mentally ill she should be given the death penalty,” Thomas said.
Ryan Petty, whose daughter Alaina was killed in the shooting, said that for a jury to decide to recommend a life sentence, “either they didn’t understand the facts of this case, or [were] dishonest with themselves when they signed up to be jurors and would never vote for the death penalty.”
“You can’t look at the facts of this case, look at the cruel and inhumane treatment of the 17 victims — that he went back and shot again those who were already down on the ground,” and conclude otherwise, Petty said.
The parents of Alyssa Alhadeff, another 14-year-old victim, said they were disgusted by the verdict.
“I’m disgusted with these jurors,” said Alyssa’s father, Ilan Alhadeff. “I am disgusted with the system, that you can allow 17 dead and 17 others to be shot and injured, and not have the death penalty imposed. What do we have the death penalty?’
Linda Beigel Schulman, the mother of geography teacher Scott Beigel, echoed that question, telling reporters: “If this wasn’t the most perfect death penalty case, then why do we have the death penalty?”
She, like many of the families who spoke to reporters, praised prosecutors for their work, saying they perfectly executed the state’s case against the gunman.
“Justice was not served today,” said her husband, Michael Schulman.
The court’s recommendation robbed the victims’ families of justice, the father of 14-year-old Jaime Guttenberg told reporters, saying it could make another mass shooting “more likely.”
“We’re all in this position now to do the job that we do in this country so that this doesn’t happen to another family,” Fred Guttenberg said after court. “This decision today only makes it more likely that the next mass shooting will be attempted.”
“This jury failed our families today,” Guttenberg said.
The widow of 49-year-old Christopher Hixon, who was the school’s athletic director, said the jury’s decision indicated the gunman’s life meant more than the 17 who were killed and the rest of the community who remain “terrified and traumatized.”
Debra Hixon also rejected defense arguments about the gunman’s mental or spiritual struggles, pointing to another of her sons, who has special needs.
“I have a son who checked … a lot of those boxes that the shooter did as well,” she said. “And you know what? My son is not a murderer. My son is the sweetest person you could ever meet.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was also disappointed by the jury’s decision, he said Thursday, as well as the length of time it took for the trial to be completed.
“I was very disappointed to see that,” he said of the jury’s verdict. “I’m also disappointed that it’s been four and a half years since these murders and we’re just now realizing it.”
Broward County Public Defender Gordon Weekes praised the attorneys in his office who represented the gunman, telling reporters, “With the greatest sympathy, we tried to prepare this case and present this case in the most professional and legal way that we could ».
Weeks urged the community to respect the verdict, saying Thursday “is not a day of celebration, but a day of solemn recognition and a solemn opportunity to reflect on the healing that is necessary for this community.”
Weeks declined to comment when asked if Cruz had a reaction to the jury’s recommendation.
To decide on a recommended sentence, jurors were asked to weigh the aggravating and mitigating factors presented by the prosecution and defense during the trial.
Prosecutors pointed to seven aggravating factors, including that the killings were particularly heinous, horrific or cruel, as well as cold, calculated and premeditated. Other aggravating factors, prosecutors said, were that the defendant knowingly created a great risk of death to many people and that he disrupted a legitimate government function – in this case, the operation of a school.
The defense, meanwhile, offered 41 possible mitigating circumstances, including that Cruz had been exposed to alcohol, drugs and nicotine in utero. that he has a “neurodevelopmental disorder associated with prenatal alcohol exposure;” and that his stepmother did not follow the recommendations of medical, mental health and educational providers, among many others.
For each victim, jurors unanimously agreed that the state had proven the aggravating factors beyond a reasonable doubt and that they were sufficient to warrant a possible death sentence.
However, to recommend death, all jurors would still have to find that the aggravating factors outweighed the mitigating circumstances. They didn’t agree unanimously on that, jurors indicated Thursday in their verdict forms — meaning Cruz should be sentenced to life in prison, not death.
In closing arguments Tuesday, prosecutors argued that Cruz’s decision to commit the shooting was deliberate and carefully planned, while Cruz’s defense attorneys offered evidence of a lifetime of struggles at home and at school.
“What he wanted to do, his plan and what he did, was to murder children at school and their caregivers,” lead prosecutor Michael Sachs said Tuesday. “The appropriate sentence for Nikolas Cruz is the death penalty,” he concluded.
But defense attorney Melisa McNeill said Cruz “is a brain-damaged, broken, mentally ill person through no fault of his own.” He pointed to the defense’s claim that Cruz’s mother used drugs and drank alcohol while his mother was pregnant with him,…
