Parkland school shooting gunman Nikolas Cruz will be formally sentenced this week to life in prison — but not until the families of those he killed in 2018 have one more chance to face him in court.
“You stole him from us and you didn’t get the justice you deserved,” Debra Hixon, widow of victim Christopher Hixon, told Cruz in an early statement Tuesday morning, referring to a Florida grand jury’s decision last month not to indict him. to be sentenced to death.
“You have been given a gift – a gift of grace and mercy,” he added, “which you have not shown any of your victims.”
Watch live updates: Parkland shooter Nikolas Cruz to be formally sentenced
After a months-long trial to decide whether Cruz should be sentenced to death, a jury recommended he serve life in prison without the possibility of parole for the South Florida high school shooting that killed 17 people, sparing his life after his defense attorneys argued that he was a disturbed, mentally ill person.
Broward County Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer must abide by their decision – three jurors voted against the death penalty, which in Florida must be unanimous – when she sentences Cruz, 24, who pleaded guilty last year to 17 counts of murder and 17 counts of attempted murder. . He is expected to issue a formal sentence on Wednesday.
In addition to grief over his sentence, many of those who took the stand spoke directly to Cruz about how their lives have been affected by the carnage at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School — the deadliest mass shooting at an American high school, even The Scourge of gun violence on US campuses continues.
“You don’t know me, but you tried to kill me,” said teacher and survivor Stacey Lippel. “The person I was at 2:20 (pm) on Wednesday, February 14, 2018, is not the same person standing here today. I am devastated and changed and will never look at the world the same way again.”
David Robinovitz, the grandfather of 14-year-old Alyssa Alhadeff, referred to Cruz not by name but as the “Parkland killer,” saying that while the shooter “won for now,” one day he will die.
“At that time, Parkland killer, I hope you go somewhere to meet your maker,” Robinovitch said. “And, Parkland killer, I hope your maker sends you straight to hell to burn for the rest of your eternity.”
Many of the Parkland families already testified for several days this summer as prosecutors closed their case, describing the depth of the loss they had suffered. But those statements, according to the father of 14-year-old victim Jaime Guttenberg, who was among the 14 students killed, did not include everything the families wanted to say because they had to be vetted by lawyers on both sides.
“It wasn’t the extent of how we feel,” Fred Guttenberg told CNN last month after the jury’s decision. “At the sentencing hearing, we will be able to say whatever we want, including discussing how we feel now about this verdict.”
A second round of victim impact testimony will take place in two days, with survivors of the shooting also allowed to speak, the Broward County District Attorney’s office confirmed to CNN in a statement. It’s unclear how many of them or the victims’ loved ones will take the stand, but there are no time limits and some people may testify via video conference.
Victim impact statements this week do not have to be shown to attorneys in advance, the state attorney’s office said.
“I have much more I would like to say. I have a lot more I’d like to say directly to the killer,” Guttenberg told CNN, adding, “Now we’ll be able to tell him exactly how we feel about him.”
Because of his plea, Cruz skipped the guilt phase of his trial and instead went directly to the sentencing phase, in which prosecutors sought the death penalty while Cruz’s appointed public defenders pushed for life without parole.
To reach their verdicts, jurors heard prosecutors and defense attorneys argue for several months about aggravating factors and mitigating circumstances — reasons why Cruz should or should not be executed.
Prosecutors pointed to seven aggravating factors, including that the killings were particularly heinous, gruesome or cruel, as well as cold, calculated and premeditated, supporting their case with evidence that the gunman spent months meticulously planning the shooting, modifying his AR-15 to to be improved. marksmanship and ammo build-up.
Prosecutors also presented Cruz’s online search history showing how he searched for information about previous mass shootings, as well as comments he left on YouTube sharing his express desire to commit mass murder.
“What he writes,” lead prosecutor Michael Sachs said during closing arguments, “what he says is a window into someone’s soul.”
But defense attorneys said their client should be sentenced to life, pointing to a lifetime of struggles that began before he was even born: His biological mother, they said, used drugs and alcohol while pregnant with Cruz, causing a host of spiritual and mental deficits resulting from fetal alcohol spectrum disorder.
Despite his problems — and teachers and school counselors concerned about his behavior and poor academic performance — Cruz never received adequate or appropriate intervention, defense attorneys argued. That was partly due to his late stepmother, who, defense lawyer Melisa McNeill said, “never really appreciated” what was wrong with him.
“Sometimes,” McNeil said in her final argument, “the people who deserve the least compassion, grace and remorse are the ones who have to get it.”
In reaching their verdict, the jury unanimously agreed that the state had proven the aggravating factors beyond a reasonable doubt – and they were sufficient to warrant a possible death sentence.
Ultimately, however, jurors did not unanimously agree that the aggravating factors outweighed the mitigating circumstances, resulting in a recommendation for life in prison rather than death.
Three jurors voted against recommending the death penalty, jury foreman Benjamin Thomas told CNN affiliate WFOR — a decision he disagreed with, noting, “I don’t like how it turned out, but … that’s how the jury system works.”
One of the jurors was a “hard no” who couldn’t vote for death because he “didn’t believe, because he was mentally ill, he should be given the death penalty,” Thomas said. Two more jurors joined her.
The woman “didn’t budge” from her stance, juror Melody Vanoy told CNN. “Whether we needed 10 hours or five days” to think about it, “he didn’t feel like he was going to be moved.”
Vanoy herself voted for life, telling CNN she was convinced because she “felt the system failed” Cruz repeatedly throughout his life.
Regardless, the outcome did little for the families who had hoped to see Cruz sentenced to death and who, in the hours after the jury’s verdict was read, saw their disappointment turn to anger and confusion as they grappled with her decision. jury.
“I’m disgusted with these jurors,” said Ilan Alhadeff, the father of student victim Alyssa 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?’
“This shooter did not deserve compassion,” Tony Modalto, father of slain 14-year-old Gina Modalto, 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?’
Not all relatives of the victims felt this way. Before the trial ended, Robert Sedrup, brother of victim Carmen Sedrup, told CNN he was against the death penalty — in Cruz’s case and everyone else’s.
“Logically,” he said, “it doesn’t entail for me to say, ‘Killing someone is this horrible, heinous, awful, terrible thing, and to prove that point, we’re going to do it to someone else.'”
