Parkland school shooter Nikolas Cruz was formally sentenced to life without parole Wednesday after the families of his 17 slain victims spent two days describing him as evil, a coward, a monster and subhuman.
Cruz, shackled and wearing a red prison jumpsuit, watched intently as Judge Elizabeth Scherer sentenced him to 17 life sentences for the Feb. 14, 2018, massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in suburban Fort Lauderdale and 17 others for the attempted murders of those he injured.
Scherer had no choice, as the jury in Cruz’s three-month trial voted 9-3 on Oct. 13 to sentence him to death, but Florida law requires unanimity for that sentence to be imposed .
Cruz acknowledged under questioning from the judge before sentencing that he is on medication but was able to understand what was happening.
The sentencing came after two days of parents, wives, siblings and others of the slain victims and some of the injured survivors walking to a lectern a few feet from Cruz to address each other.
Linda Beigel Schulmanm hugs Debbie Hixon after Hixon gave a victim impact statement during the sentencing hearing for Marjory Stoneman Douglas shooter Nikolas Cruz. (Amy Beth Bennett/Reuters)
‘Good deal’
The judge praised the families and the injured who testified, calling them strong, graceful and patient.
“I know you’re going to be okay, because you have each other,” Scherer said.
Some parents and other family members cried as I read. As it ended and Cruz was led from the courtroom, a father murmured, “Good delivery.”
Cruz, 24, will be brought within days to the Florida prison system’s processing center near Miami before being assigned to a maximum-security prison.
Families and the injured spent two days verbally lashing out at Cruz, wishing him a painful death and lamenting that he could not be sentenced to death.
“He escaped this punishment because a minority of the jury was given the power to overturn the majority decision made by people who were able to see him for what he is: a remorseless monster who deserves no mercy,” he said. say Meghan Petty.
His younger sister, Alaina, 14, was killed when Cruz fired his AR-15-style semi-automatic rifle into her classroom as he walked the halls of a three-story building for seven minutes, firing 140 shots. He had been planning the shooting for seven months.
“A person has to be incredibly sick to want to hurt another human being. Even more sick to dwell on the desire and come up with a plan and unimaginably evil to execute that plan, which not only hurt people but ended lives,” he said.
Scherer accepted a request from prosecutors to first allow relatives of Cruz’s victims to address the court before sentencing.
Cruz sits at the defense table during his sentencing hearing at the Broward County Courthouse in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on Tuesday. (Amy Beth Bennett/South Florida Sun Sentinel/The Associated Press)
“Where was your remorse?”
Cruz stared at the speakers, but showed little emotion.
Anthony Montalto III, whose older sister Gina, 14, was killed by a bullet fired point-blank into her chest, said Tuesday he was at the neighboring high school and heard the gunshots. He said he felt a pain in his chest; he thinks it was a sign of his sister’s death.
“Going from a younger sibling to an only child … is a dramatic change for anyone,” he said. He then criticized the defense’s contention that Cruz’s biological mother’s heavy drinking during pregnancy caused brain damage that led to a lifetime of erratic and sometimes violent behavior that culminated with the shooting.
Cruz was 19 at the time of his attack at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, about 50 miles north of the Fort Lauderdale courthouse. He had been expelled from school.
Thomas Hixon’s father, the school’s athletic director Chris Hixon, was shot when he ran at Cruz, trying to stop him. The Marine veteran fell, wounded, and tried to take cover in an alcove, but Cruz approached and shot him again.
Tony Montalto hugs his son, Anthony, after he made his victim’s statement Wednesday. Montalto’s daughter Gina, Anthony’s sister, was killed in the 2018 shootings. (Amy Beth Bennett/South Florida Sun Sentinel/The Associated Press)
Thomas Hixon, a Navy veteran, recalled that Cruz claimed remorse a year ago when he pleaded guilty to the murders, setting the stage for the criminal trial.
“Where was your remorse when you saw my father wounded and bleeding on the ground and decided to shoot him a third time?” Hixon told Cruz. “Your defense was taken from the idea of your humanity, but you had none for those you encountered on February 14th.”
Ines Hixon, the wife of Thomas Hixon and daughter-in-law of Chris Hixon, called Cruz a “domestic terrorist.”
Some of the survivors organized a youth-led movement for tighter gun regulation in the United States, which has the world’s highest rate of private gun ownership and where mass shootings have become frequent.