Parkland school shooter avoids the death penalty after jury recommends life in prison without parole

A jury on Thursday spared Parkland, Florida, school shooter Nikolas Cruz from the death penalty, recommending that he be sentenced to life in prison without parole for the 2018 Valentine’s Day bloodbath at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School that left 14 college students and three workers members lifeless.

The 12-person jury’s advice was learn in a packed courtroom earlier than visibly distraught relations and the shooter, who remained blank-faced all through.

The jury reached its determination after greater than a day of deliberations, almost capping the exhaustive trial that noticed jurors evaluation graphic movies and images from the capturing, tour the excessive school left virtually untouched since the bloodbath, and listen to emotional testimonies of victims’ relations. 

Prosecutors had sought the death penalty, whereas the protection had requested for life in prison. The jury needed to attain a unanimous determination for the death sentence.

Aspects of Cruz’s life have been elements in the jury’s determination

Judge Elizabeth Scherer learn by the verdict varieties — a complete of 17, one for every sufferer.

The jury beneficial life without the chance for parole on all counts. The determination implies that the jury couldn’t unanimously agree that the gunman must be executed for killing at the least one sufferer. 

However, the jury did discover that there have been aggravating elements that would warrant the death sentence, however that they didn’t outweigh the mitigating circumstances. 

Those mitigating elements, the protection had argued, embody the shooter’s start mom’s alcohol use, his adoptive dad and mom’ failure to get him correct psychiatric care and his act of contrition.

Family members of the victims have been visibly emotional, some shaking their heads and others wiping tears. 

Lori Alhadeff, the mom of Alyssa Alhadeff, dropped her head into her hand as the verdict associated to her daughter was learn.

The choose can not overrule the jury’s verdict underneath Florida legislation.

The shooter’s sentencing is scheduled for Nov. 1 — at which period a proper ruling will probably be issued. It was delayed after the state argued that the surviving victims of the Parkland capturing have the proper to precise themselves and say what they might not throughout sufferer affect statements previous to a sentence being introduced. 

Families of victims say the jury ‘failed’

Following the verdict, Alyssa’s dad and mom denounced the jury’s advice.

“We are beyond disappointed with the outcome today. This should have been the death penalty 100%,” mentioned Lori Alhadeff, who has a “Live for Alyssa” tattoo on her arm.

“I sent my daughter to school and she was shot eight times. I am so beyond disappointed and frustrated with this outcome. I just don’t understand this,” she mentioned.

Her husband, Ilan Alhadeff, mentioned, “The jurors let us down.”

“I am disgusted with our legal system. I am disgusted with those jurors,” he mentioned. “I pray that that animal suffers every day of his life in jail, and he should have a short life.”

He mentioned that the jury’s determination units a precedent for different mass shooters, including, “He should have been given the death penalty from the get-go.”

Max Schachter, the father of sufferer Alex Schachter, 14, tweeted that the gunman “got everything he wanted” with the verdict, “while our loved ones are in the cemetery.”

Tony Montalto, the father of sufferer Gina Montalto, 14, mentioned the aggravating elements in the case ought to have outweighed the mitigating elements. 

“Seventeen beautiful lives were cut short by murder — heinous, prepared, torturous murder. And the monster that killed them gets to live another day,” he mentioned.

Fred Guttenberg, the father of Jaime Guttenberg, 14, mentioned his daughter was shot operating down a hallway and no mitigating elements may have weighed in opposition to that.

“This jury failed our families today,” he mentioned. “I don’t know how the jury came to their conclusion today but 17 families did not receive justice.”

He mentioned upon realizing the verdict, he checked out his spouse and mentioned “shame.”

“Anger, devastation … I’ve spent almost the past five years preparing myself for today.”

Anne Ramsay, the mother of Helena Ramsay, 17, said: “We should’ve had the death sentence given out today because he took 17 lives and attempted to take 17 more and it could’ve even been more, and he planned it meticulously.”

Noting examples of innocent Black men who are “mowed down all the time,” she said the jurors allowed the Parkland shooter to live.

“He received away with it at the moment,” she said.

A woman who identified herself as Helena’s cousin said she felt the defense “guilt-tripped” the jury out of the death penalty.

“But they’re not realizing that we have to live with this, we have to live with not having Helena in our lives,” the woman, who did identify herself, said. “He doesn’t deserve mercy or grace. He’s allowed to breathe and have three meals a day. Where is my cousin? She’s not here.”

Linda Beigel Schulman, the mother of slain teacher Scott Beigel, asked: “If this was not the most perfect death penalty case, then why do we have the death penalty at all?” 

Debbi Hixon, the widow of Chris Hixon, a instructor who bumped into the school to attempt to cease the shooter, additionally had sharp phrases after the trial outcomes.

“This verdict to me, what it says to me, what it says to my family, what it says to the other families, is that his life meant more than the 17 that were murdered, and the 17 that were shot, and the thousands of people in that school, in that community that are terrorized and traumatized every single day.”

Broward County Public Schools issued a statement in light of the verdict, saying mental health professionals will be provided at each school.

The three-month trial

On Valentine’s Day 2018, the gunman, then 19, stormed the high school wielding an AR-15-style rifle and released a spray of bullets. 

He pleaded guilty last October to murdering 14 students and three staff members in the massacre. 

The victims in the shooting were: Alyssa Alhadeff, 14, Scott Beigel, 35, Martin Duque, 14, Nicholas Dworet, 17, Aaron Feis, 37, Jaime Guttenberg, 14, Chris Hixon, 49, Luke Hoyer, 15, Cara Loughran, 14, Gina Montalto, 14, Joaquin Oliver, 17, Alaina Petty, 14, Meadow Pollack, 18, Helena Ramsay, 17, Alex Schachter, 14, Carmen Schentrup, 16, and Peter Wang, 15.

During closing arguments Tuesday, defense counsel Melisa McNeill told the jury before they started deliberations: “One day I promise you, you will ask yourself, did I make the right decision? You will never forget voting for life.”

Lead prosecutor Mike Satz concluded the state’s closing arguments by emotionally reading each victim’s name saying, “The appropriate sentence for Nikolas Cruz is the death penalty.” 

The lengthy trial saw prosecutors call witnesses who recalled seeing students and staff members die and argue that the gunman had displayed racist and misogynistic behavior online prior to the massacre. Violent writings and drawings were found in his jail cell in the spring.

The defense argued that his birth mother’s alcohol abuse during her pregnancy led to his erratic and violent habits.

In a rare move, jurors in August visited the site of the massacre, where nothing had been changed from that deadly day more than four years ago, except for the removal of the victims’ bodies and some personal items. They walked past dried Valentine’s Day rose petals scattered on classroom floors, large pools of dried blood and bullet-riddled walls.

‘I didn’t have anyone else to kill’

In the trial, forensic psychiatrist Dr. Charles Scott testified for the state that the gunman meets the criteria for a diagnosis of antisocial personality disorder, meaning he showed no regard for right and wrong, and there was evidence showing he knew what he was doing. 

“So, it’s not that he didn’t know or understand that. He did,” Scott mentioned, NBC Miami reported. “It’s just that [people] with a social personality disorder, they don’t care.”  

In Scott’s chilling testimony Oct. 4, he spoke of his jailhouse interview with the shooter, who instructed him he ended the capturing as a result of “I didn’t have anyone else to kill.”

The trial also saw tension between the defense and Scherer in which the gunman’s attorneys filed a motion for her to step down, accusing her of being biased, but she refused.

The motion came after Scherer rebuked lead defense attorney Melisa McNeill and her team outside of the jury’s presence, accusing them of being “unprofessional” when they unexpectedly rested their case after only about 25 of the 80 witnesses they initially intended to testify had been called.