FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) – Parkland school shooter Nikolas Cruz was formally sentenced to life in prison without parole Wednesday after the families of his 17 slain victims spent two days denouncing him as evil, cowardly, a monster and subhuman.
Cruz, shackled and wearing a red prison jumpsuit, watched as Judge Elizabeth Scherer handed down 34 consecutive life sentences — one for each of those killed and the 17 he injured — for the Feb. 14, 2018, massacre at Marjory Stoneman High School in suburban Fort Douglas. Lauderdale.
The judge’s voice cracked as she read the first of the sentences, but her voice took on strength and intensity as she went down the list. Cruz showed no emotion as she spoke.
Scherer had no choice. jurors in Cruz’s three-month trial voted 9-3 on Oct. 13 to sentence him to death, but Florida law requires unanimity for that sentence to be imposed.
The sentencing came after two days worth of parents, spouses, siblings and other relatives of the slain victims and some of the injured survivors walking to a 20-foot lectern to speak to him face-to-face.
The judge praised the families and the injured for testifying, calling them strong, graceful and patient.
“I know you’re going to be OK, 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 riddance.”
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.
“It would be real justice if every family here was given a bullet and your AR-15 and we had to collect straws and each one of us shot at you one by one, making sure you felt it every time. , and your fear continued to grow until the last family member who pulled the glass had the privilege of making sure you were killed,” said Linda Beigel Schulman, mother of slain teacher Scott Beigel. “That’s real justice for you.”
Beigel Schulman said she takes comfort in knowing Cruz will have to worry about his safety constantly for the rest of his life.
“From what I’m hearing, child killers are very loathed and hated in prison,” Beigel Schulman told Cruz. “I welcome the day I was told you were tortured and taken out for your cold-blooded, premeditated, calculated, heinous murders, because you deserve nothing less.”
David Alkhadev, Alyssa Alkhadev’s uncle, told Cruz via Zoom from his classroom in Maryland that he deserves “a chance to rot.”
“You deserve the chance to absorb the look of terror on your face once you leave this room,” Alkhadev said. “You deserve the opportunity to know that justice will prevail at some point, causing you great anguish, minute by minute, day by day.”
Associated Press writers Freida Frisaro and David Fischer in Miami contributed to this report.
