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FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Prosecutors began Nikolas Cruz’s death-penalty trial Monday, presenting a chilling minute-by-minute timeline of how he killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School four years ago, setting the stage for an emotional trial expected to continue through months and renews the debate about what type of defendants should be executed.
The trial, which is being held in Broward County District Court, comes after Cruz already pleaded guilty to carrying out one of the deadliest school shootings in US history when he was 19 years old. The jury of seven men and five women was asked to decide whether Cruz, now 23, should receive the death penalty or be sentenced to life in prison for his crimes.
During his opening statement, Broward County District Attorney Michael J. Satz accused Cruz of carrying out a “cold, calculating, manipulative and deadly” attack involving horrifying and shocking levels of violence.
After explaining to jurors that much of Cruz’s rampage was caught on surveillance video, Satz noted that some of Cruz’s victims huddled together in classroom hallways or alcoves after being shot. but Cruz returned a few minutes later and fired more rounds into their bodies. Cruz, who was armed with an assault rifle and wearing a tactical vest, fired 139 rounds during his rampage on February 14, 2018.
Satz also told jurors they will hear evidence about how Cruz, a former student at the school, planned his attack for months. Satz noted that police recovered a video from Cruz’s cell phone that he made three days before he had an Uber driver drop him off at school to carry out his attack in Parkland.
“Hi, my name is Nick. I’m going to be the next school shooter in 2018,” he said in the video, according to Satz. “My goal is at least 20 people with AR-15s and some tracer rounds. It will be a big event and when you see me on the news you will know who I am. You will all die.
In total, Cruz killed 14 students, a teacher, the school’s athletic director and a football coach. One 15-year-old student was shot 13 times, Satz said.
Another 17 people were injured in the shooting. Some relatives of the victims sobbed in the courtroom as prosecutors presented their case. After the Parkland shooting, some of the victims’ parents joined students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School to launch a national campaign for stricter gun laws.
“One week ago today I was at the @WhiteHouse to celebrate [President Biden] signing gun safety legislation,” Fred Guttenberg, who lost his 14-year-old daughter Jaime in the shooting, tweeted Monday morning. “I’m in the Courthouse today for the beginning of the penalty phase of the criminal trial of the person who killed my daughter with an AR 15. This is the reality of gun violence.”
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The sentencing portion of Cruz’s trial comes as the United States is rocked by a series of mass shootings that have renewed the debate over gun laws and sparked outrage as people are gunned down in places meant to be safe — including schools. The mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, left 19 students and two teachers dead in May. A Texas House investigative report released Sunday pointed to numerous blunders by local, state and federal law enforcement agencies in their response to the attack.
Cruz’s face, wearing a gray and black sweater, was partially obscured by a black mask during Monday’s procedure. As Satz laid out the prosecutors’ case, Cruz fiddled with a notebook and scribbled notes to his attorneys.
In a surprise move, Cruz’s legal team waived its right to make an opening statement, saying it would begin presenting its case to the jury at a later date.
But Cruz’s legal team is expected to ask jurors to spare his life because he had a turbulent upbringing and received mental health counseling. Cruz’s mother died in 2017 and he was living in foster care when he committed the attack.
Broward County Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer presided over the trial.
During his opening instructions to jurors, Scherer said that under Florida law, jurors would first have to unanimously decide whether Cruz’s assault included one of seven possible felony “aggravating factors.” If they do, the jury will consider other possible “mitigating circumstances” that would lead them to spare Cruz the death penalty instead.
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During his opening statement, Satz laid out the aggravating factors he said prosecutors will use to argue in favor of the death penalty. Under Florida law, potential aggravating factors that jurors They weigh: whether the defendant has been previously convicted of a serious crime; that the defendant knowingly created a great risk to a great number of people; that a killing is particularly “heinous, atrocious or cruel”; that the killing was premeditated; the crime was committed to disrupt a governmental function; the victim was an appointed official in the performance of their duties; or that murders were committed during a burglary.
Satz said Cruz’s crime covered all seven of those factors.
Although Cruz had no prior violent criminal record, Satz said killing or attempting to kill any of the 34 victims qualifies. The prosecutor also argued that Cruz committed his crime during the burglary because he was a former student who had no right to be on school grounds.
“You will see that these aggravating factors far outweigh any mitigating circumstances,” Satz said. “Everything about the accused’s past.” All about his childhood. All about his education. All about his mental health. All about his therapy and all about his care.
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