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CNN
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The gunman who killed 17 people at a South Florida high school in 2018 is expected to be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, bringing to a close a months-long trial in which a jury declined to recommend the death penalty.
Nikolas Cruz, 24, faces more victims in court before Broward Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer formally imposes the sentence recommended last month, which has frustrated and angered many relatives of those he killed. this week.
“It’s heartbreaking that no one who heard and saw all of this gave this killer the worst possible punishment,” Annika Dworet, the mother of 17-year-old victim Nicholas Dworet, said Wednesday. “As we all know, the worst punishment in Florida is the death penalty. How bad does a crime have to be to warrant the death penalty?”
Cruz, who last year pleaded guilty to 17 murders and 17 attempted mass murders, was confronted by relatives of several victims and some of the survivors of the shooting. at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Despite the continuing epidemic of American gun violence, this remains the deadliest mass shooting at a US high school.
LIVE UPDATES: Parkland shooter Nikolas Cruz to be formally sentenced
Others who testified Wednesday, like Lori Alhadeff, who went to the medical examiner’s office to see the body of her 14-year-old daughter, Alyssa, and touched the spots where the gunman shot her, spoke of the pain the shooting caused them. Hope to bring her back to life.
“You robbed Alyssa (of) her memories,” she told the gunman. “Alyssa will never graduate from high school. Alyssa will never go to college and Alyssa will never play soccer. She will never marry and will never have a child.
“My hope is that you’re miserable for the rest of your miserable life,” Lori Alhadeff added. “I hope the pain of what you did to my family burns and traumatizes you every day.”
The state sought the death penalty, so Cruz’s trial moved to the penalty phase, in which prosecutors and defense attorneys tasked a jury with hearing the reasons why they felt he should or should not be killed.
In part, the prosecution argued that the shooting was particularly heinous, cruel or brutal and was premeditated and calculated. Deterrence, which prompts a life sentence, points to the shooter’s mental or intellectual deficiencies.
Three jurors were prompted to vote for life, sparing Cruz a death sentence that a Florida jury must unanimously recommend. Under state law, Scherer must follow the jury’s recommendation of life without parole.
Still, many of Cruz’s injuries received shorter life sentences than the families of those he killed wanted.
“It’s really sad. I miss my little boy,” Max Schachter, the father of 14-year-old victim Alex Schachter, told CNN Wednesday before the sentencing. “It’s not fair that the worst high school shooter in US history basically got what he wanted,” he said, referring to Cruz’s life sentence.
Samantha Fuentes, one of the shooting survivors, confronted Cruz Wednesday, recalling that they walked the same hallways and were even in JROTC together.
“We were kids then,” she said. “Ironically, I was a child when you stood at the window looking into my Holocaust Studies class, holding your AR-15 with swastikas. I was still a child after watching you kill two of my friends. I was a kid when you shot the gun.
Fuentes is “furious” about Cruz’s conviction, she said. But unlike him, she said, “I will never take out my anger, pain and suffering on others because I am stronger than you. This entire community behind me is stronger than you.
Of those killed, 14 were students, and three were employees who ran into the accident or tried to help the students to safety.
The students killed: Alyssa Alhadeff, 14; Martin Duke Angiano, 14; Nicholas Dworet, 17; Jaime Guttenberg, 14; Luke Hoyer, 15; Kara Loughran, 14; Gina Montalto, 14; Joaquin Oliver, 17; Alina Petty, 14; Meadow Pollack, 18; Helena Ramsay, 17; Alex Schachter, 14; Carmen Schentrup, 16; Peter Wang, 15.
geography teacher Scott Biegel, 35; wrestling coach Chris Hickson, 49; Assistant football coach Aaron Face (37) was also killed.
Many are still unclear about what Cruz’s future holds. He will be held in Broward County custody before being turned over to the Florida Department of Corrections and taken to one of several reception centers around the state.
There, Cruz will undergo weeks of physical and psychological tests, Florida criminal defense attorney Janet Johnson told CNN. “They’ll look at his record, they’ll look at the level of crime he’s been convicted of, which is obviously the highest, and they’ll recommend a facility somewhere in the state,” she said.
According to the Florida State Department of Corrections website, factors including the seriousness of the crime, the length of the sentence and the inmate’s prior criminal record determine which facility. Typically, those convicted of the most serious crimes or those with the longest sentences are housed in the most secure facilities, the website says.
Because Cruz is a high-risk offender, he will be housed in a prison with other high-profile or “very dangerous offenders,” Johnson said.
“But he won’t be isolated, and of course it’s a real threat to him because there could be people who want to do ‘prison justice’ who don’t feel that the sentence he got in court was enough,” Johnson added.
The Department of Corrections did not respond to CNN’s question about what mental health treatment Cruz will receive while in prison. During the trial, the Broward County Sheriff’s Office released more than 30 pages of Cruz’s writings and drawings, which revealed the disturbing thoughts he had while in custody, focusing on guns, blood and death.
On one page, Cruz wrote that he wanted to go to the death penalty, and on another page, he told his family he was grieving and hoped to die of a heart attack by taking painkillers and overeating.
For the victims and their families, the end of the gunman’s trial marks the end of a chapter in a life’s journey of grief.
“I want to put this behind me,” Max Schachter told CNN on Wednesday. “I will go to court later today. He will be sentenced for life and I will never think about this murderer again.
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