Zach Cruz fled Florida after the massacre in 2018. Now the men who gave him a house in Virginia are accused of stealing his inheritance.

November 4, 2022 at 7:00 am EDT Zach Cruz, center, is the brother of Parkland shooter Nikolas Cruz, top left. Zac was picked up by Richard Moore, top right, and Mike Donovan, bottom right, who are now accused of stealing his inheritance money. (Julia Redleman/For The Washington Post)(Amy Beth Bennett/South Florida Sun Sentinel via AP, Pool) (Norm Shaffer/For The Washington Post). Comment on this story Comment By the time the jury was impaneled again in Florida the courtroom, its benches were full. Here were the families, whose sons and daughters and wives had been slaughtered. Here were the lawyers, who had asked the survivors to testify about the day their limbs, their entire lives, were irrevocably mutilated. Here were the sheriff’s deputies, the judge, all the people who had come to court day after day, week after week, waiting for this moment, when they would finally learn what was going to happen to Nikolas Cruz. But when the Parkland school shooter looked up, there was one person he didn’t see. Zachary Cruz, 22, was the only close family member he had left. When Cruz went on a killing spree at his former high school, it was Zach, then 17, who agonized over whether he could have done anything to prevent it. When Cruz was arrested, it was Zach who entered the interrogation room to ask, “Why did you do that?” When Cruz began to bend, it was Zach who wrapped his older brother in his arms. “I will come to your trial. I will come to everything,” Zac promised His brother, whom he always calls Nick, shows a transcript of the 2018 conversation. “I swear to everything I love, I’ll come see you every chance I get. Okay? Whatever happens.” Four and a half years later, Zach hadn’t been to Florida in months. He rarely made online video visits with his brother. And even though he was the most anticipated witness in the death penalty trial, Jacques never came to testify. Zachary Cruz visited his older brother, Nikolas Cruz, at the Broward Sheriff’s Office in Parkland, Fla., in 2018. (Video: Whitney Leaming/TWP) “His brother loves him,” the shooter’s public defender had assured the jury during her closing statement. The prosecutor objected. “Not in evidence,” he said. For the defensive team, Zach not taking a position was a missed opportunity to show what the Cruz brothers had endured growing up. For prosecutors, it was a missed opportunity to cross-examine the person who perhaps best understood the mental state of one of the deadliest school shooters. His brother confessed to shooting 17 people in Parkland. But it’s the only family Zac Cruz has left. But Zach’s absence was also felt by investigators away from Florida, who saw it as another sign of what they suspected for more than a year: Zachary Cruz was in trouble. On October 5, a week before the verdict, the police raided the house where Zack lives in Virginia. Zach was photographed sitting outside the home, surrounded by Augusta County Sheriff’s deputies. But they weren’t there to arrest him. They said he was the victim of a crime. The alleged perpetrators were Richard Moore and Mike Donovan, both 45, Virginia businessmen. who offered to pick up Zach shortly after the shoot. In depositions and previous interviews, Zach has called the couple his guardians, saying they gave him a home, a family and a place to do the one thing he loved, skateboarding. But police and court records allege that Moore and Donovan, who were already being prosecuted by state and federal agencies for their business practices, stole the money Zach inherited from his mother’s estate — more than $400,000 – for their Ferrari to pay taxes, bills and car payments. During the raid on the couple’s home and headquarters, police collected more than 90 phones, computers and other devices as potential evidence. Moore and Donovan were charged with obtaining money by false pretenses and taking advantage of someone who is mentally incompetent. They were released from jail on $50,000 bonds. The men called the charges “bogus”. They claim Zach is being victimized not by them, but by the Augusta County Sheriff’s Department, accusing its officers of handcuffing and holding Zach at gunpoint during the raid. “We love Zack and would never take advantage of him,” Donovan wrote in an email to the Washington Post, saying Zack “always had 100% control over what happened to his money.” The arrests of Moore and Donovan come more than a year after a Virginia social services agency began questioning whether Zach, who had no other family to care for him, was being exploited. Parkland families unleash outrage at gunman, justice system after painful trial Although Zach is an adult and Moore and Donovan have no legal custody of him, he has become embroiled in the complex web surrounding the couple — one that includes dozens of lawsuits, a myriad of spinoff businesses, an FBI investigation and a contentious public battle with Dog the Bounty Hunter reality star. On the day of the verdict in Florida, the court gave a decisive result for Nikolas Cruz: Instead of being executed, he will spend the rest of his life in prison. But for Zach, the future is far less certain. He never finished high school and doesn’t have a job. If convicted, the men who took him could go to prison. Moore faces even more prison time in separate cases involving perjury and tax fraud. And according to police records, Zach’s inheritance money is gone. After a Post reporter spoke to Zach about this story in September, Zach’s phone number was changed. Additional attempts at a personal interview were unsuccessful. Moore and Donovan, who are expected to plead not guilty to the charges against them, continue to post pictures of Zach on social media. After their initial appearance in the case, they shared a photo of their family standing outside the Augusta County Courthouse. Zach’s arm was wrapped around Moore and Donovan. He was smiling. Two words were embroidered on his shirt: “Go away.”

“They feel like parents” Zach had known Moore and Donovan for less than two weeks when he agreed to move with them to Virginia. It was May 2018. He was orphaned, homeless and on probation. His adoptive mother, who had raised him and his older brother since they were babies, had died unexpectedly of pneumonia in November 2017. Three months later, on Valentine’s Day, Nikolas Cruz opened fire inside the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High, killing three staff members and 14 students — people Zack knew growing up. After Zach was interviewed by detectives for hours, he hid from the news cameras for days. In March, he took his skateboard to the Stoneman Douglas campus, trying to deal with what his brother had done there. He was arrested for trespassing. Zack spent 10 days in jail, much of it under suicide watch, according to his public defender at the time. He was then placed on probation and sent back to the home of a former neighbor he had been living with since his mother’s death. By May, the neighbor had kicked him out and called the police for driving without a license. Prosecutors said Zachary Cruz, brother of convicted Parkland shooter Nikolas Cruz, was heard admiring his brother’s popularity during prison visits. (Video: Reuters) But this time, when Zach was released by police, he was told there were three people who wanted to meet him: Moore, Donovan and their adopted 14-year-old son. They took Zach to the oceanfront hotel penthouse where they were staying, bought him clothes from the hotel gift shop, and told him they were there to help. Soon, Jacques was back in front of the judge overseeing his trial. Two of the couple’s employees testified that they would provide Zach with his own apartment, online training, weekly counseling and $13-an-hour maintenance work. “You have to take this moment and appreciate what they’re offering you,” the judge, Melinda Kirsch Brown, told Zach, giving him permission to move. Donovan and Moore, whose records include convictions for grand theft, forgery and fraudulent checks, did not take the stand. A recording of the hearing shows no one asking who they were or why they were involved. No one mentioned the media coverage of the allegations against their multi-million dollar business, Nexus Services. For the past seven years, advocacy groups and state attorneys general have accused Nexus of exploiting undocumented immigrants by removing them from custody and then requiring them to pay exorbitant fees to keep their freedom. Lawsuits and investigations against the company have been launched by nearly a dozen state and federal agencies, including the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. In some cases, lawsuits were dismissed or are still pending. In others, Nexus has been ordered to pay millions in restitution. Donovan and Moore maintain that they are not exploiting anyone. In Donovan’s book, “Not Free America: What Your Government Doesn’t You To Know,” he says the investigations are simply retaliation for our “unapologetic service to God’s flock.” This company is making millions off America’s broken immigration system Donovan describes himself as the pastor of First Christian Church Universalist in Harrisonburg, Va. The church rarely meets in person, but her website promotes the podcast, book and businesses of “Rev. Microphone.” As Nexus made a name for themselves, Donovan was a constant presence face of the company, promoting a mix of social justice advocacy and anti-government protests. Moore, whom Donovan said he married in 2016, handles the company’s finances and tends to their side projects, including a store that sells video games and Disney collectibles. They are known for their…