FORT LAUDERDALE – Jurors within the penalty trial of Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz bought their first view Monday of the AR-15-style rifle he used to homicide 17 college students and workers members 4 years in the past at Parkland’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, staring intently because it was carried to the entrance of the courtroom.
Lead prosecutor Mike Satz eliminated the black semi-automatic Smith & Wesson from a cardboard field and carried it to Broward sheriff’s Sgt. Gloria Crespo, who mentioned it was present in a third-floor stairwell after the Feb. 14, 2018, bloodbath. Video seen by jurors beforehand confirmed Cruz positioned it on the touchdown together with his backpack and the black shooter’s vest he had been carrying earlier than fleeing the school.
The protection objected to the weapon’s introduction, saying with out rationalization that it lacked relevance and was unfairly prejudicial. The protection additionally objected to Satz putting the gun on the ground behind him in straightforward view of the jurors as a substitute of putting it on an proof desk away from them. Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer rejected the objections.
David S. Weinstein, a Miami felony protection lawyer and former prosecutor who just isn’t concerned within the case, mentioned the protection believes that since Cruz pleaded responsible, the gun and different proof corresponding to surveillance video and crime scene images are now not related and serve to inflame the jurors’ feelings.
Prosecutors have efficiently argued that such proof is important to show the murders included at the very least one aggravating issue corresponding to being dedicated in a merciless or heinous method or throughout against the law that endangered the lives of many individuals.
Crespo additionally testified that Cruz, then 19, had 5 gun magazines remaining within the vest, containing 160 whole bullets. He had fired greater than 100 pictures as he stalked the three-story constructing for seven minutes, firing down hallways and into school rooms. The former Stoneman Douglas scholar, who had been expelled a 12 months earlier, wounded 17 as well as to the 14 college students and three workers members.
The jurors additionally had been shown images Crespo took of the our bodies of 5 college students and a instructor who died on the third-floor, all shot at shut vary, and images from three autopsies. Those weren’t shown to the gallery, the place a number of mother and father and relations sat, however had been later shown to reporters in non-public. As most mass shooters die throughout their assaults and are not introduced to trial, it’s uncommon that such images are seen exterior of regulation enforcement.
The crime scene images present two women and one boy mendacity useless subsequent to one another within the hallway, a Valentine’s Day stuffed animal subsequent to one woman’s head. One boy mendacity close by was shot 12 occasions, together with 4 occasions within the head. His post-mortem images confirmed gaping wounds to his cranium and shoulder – one feminine juror wiped away tears as these had been shown.
The mother and father of 1 boy and the spouse of a workers member wept because the medical doctors mentioned their member of the family’s post-mortem. Members of different households grasped their palms and rubbed their shoulders, then hugged them when the session ended.
This exhibiting got here three days after jurors noticed their first graphic crime scene and post-mortem images. The protection has additionally objected to the images being shown, saying they’re unneeded and solely meant to arouse the jurors’ anger.
Earlier Monday, the seven-man and five-woman jury and their 10 alternates heard from Uber driver Laura Zecchini, whom Cruz employed to drive him to the school. She mentioned he appeared nervous through the 13-minute trip and was carrying a big black soft-sided carrying case. Cruz instructed Zecchini he was going to his music lesson.
Cruz pleaded responsible in October to 17 counts of first-degree homicide, so the jury will solely determine if he’s sentenced to loss of life or life with out parole.
His is the deadliest mass capturing in U.S. historical past to attain trial. Nine U.S. gunmen moreover Cruz who killed at the very least 17 folks died throughout or instantly after their shootings, both by suicide or police gunfire. The suspect in a tenth, the 2019 slaying of 23 folks at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, is awaiting trial.
When jurors ultimately get the case, in all probability in October or November, they are going to vote 17 occasions, as soon as for every of the victims, on whether or not to advocate capital punishment.
For every loss of life sentence, the jury should be unanimous or the sentence for that sufferer is life. The jurors are instructed that to vote for loss of life, the prosecution’s aggravating circumstances for that sufferer should, of their judgment, “outweigh” the protection’s mitigators. A juror may vote for all times out of mercy for Cruz, now 23. During jury choice, the panelists mentioned underneath oath that they’re able to voting for both sentence.