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The prosecutor recounted the coldness and cruelty of Parkland gunman as trial begins : NPR


Relatives and family members enter the courtroom after recess on the first day of sentencing hearings for Parkland rifleman Nikolas Cruz at the Broward County Justice Complex in downtown Fort Lauderdale , Fla on Monday.

Carl Juste / Miami Herald via AP, Pool


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Carl Juste / Miami Herald via AP, Pool


Relatives and family members enter the courtroom after recess on the first day of sentencing hearings for Parkland rifleman Nikolas Cruz at the Broward County Justice Complex in downtown Fort Lauderdale , Fla on Monday.

Carl Juste / Miami Herald via AP, Pool

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. The prosecutor seeking the death penalty for the gunman who massacred 17 people at a Parkland, Fla. high school, detailed to jurors Monday how Nikolas Cruz coldly killed the victims. his personal, back with some as they lay injured to finish them off with a second volley.

Some parents cried as prosecutor Mike Satz described in his opening statement how Cruz killed their child at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on February 14, 2018. Others sat sternly, crossed hand in front of chest. A woman who lost her daughter ran out of the courtroom, sobbing and covering her face with a tissue.

Satz’s comments come at the start of the trial to determine whether Cruz should be sentenced to death or sentenced to life in prison without parole.

The prosecutor’s presentation looked at how Cruz shot and killed each of the 14 students and three staff members and wounded some of the 17. Some were shot while sitting at their desks, some running away and some lying bleeding on the floor while former Stoneman Douglas alumnus methodically stalked through a three-story building for nearly seven minutes. with an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle.

Cruz, 23, pleaded guilty in October to murder and attempted murder and is just serving her sentence. The trial, which was expected to last four months, was slated to begin in 2020, but it was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic and regulatory battles.

Satz called the killings cold, calculated, cruel and heinous, citing a video of Cruz, then 19, taken three days before the shooting.

“Here’s what the defendant said: ‘Hi, my name is Nik. I’m going to be the next school shooter of 2018. My target is at least 20 people with an AR-15 and some pellets. It’s going to be a big event and when you see me on the news, you’ll know who I am. You’re dying. Oh yeah, I can’t wait,” Satz said.

Among the first witnesses was Danielle Gilbert, a student in psychology class when the shooting began. The teacher told the students to come behind her desk.

“We’re sitting like ducks,” said Gilbert, now a student at the University of Central Florida. “We had no way to protect ourselves.”

The jury was then shown a video Gilbert shot on a cell phone inside the classroom. The scene begins with a girl curled up beneath the teacher’s desk and the others, including Gilbert, barely visible as they crouch behind it. About two dozen shots that appeared to have gone off just outside the door were heard in quick succession as the fire alarm went off. An injured boy who couldn’t see twice cried out, “Someone help me.”

The gunfire was getting farther and farther away, but the students remained silent and huddled, talking only in whispers. Finally, the voices of police officers could be heard approaching. The teacher stood up, holding her head.

“They’re coming, they’re coming, we’re okay,” one boy whispered.

SWAT officers, armed with rifles, then barged in, wanting to know if anyone was injured. The students pointed and Gilbert stood up with her camera. An injured boy and girl were taken out. A dead girl lying in a pool of blood. The officers told the students to run outside. They passed two other bodies lying in the hallway before entering the parking lot.

When her testimony was over, Gilbert broke down in sobs. Her father put his arm around her and led her from the courtroom.

Prosecutors also presented another student’s cell phone video showing classmates crouching behind chairs as Cruz shot through the classroom window, the explosion reverberating after the screams.

From the back of the courtroom, a relative of a girl who died in that classroom shouted to prosecutors to turn it off before the prosecutors asked the woman to be quiet. The defense asked for a blunder in the explosion, but it was denied.

The jury consists of seven men, five women supported by 10 substitutes. It was the nation’s deadliest mass shooting brought before a grand jury.

Nine other gunmen killed at least 17 people who died during or shortly after their shootings, either by suicide or by police shooting. The suspect in the 2019 murder of 23 people at a Walmart store in El Paso, Texas, is awaiting trial.

It is unclear if anyone was in the courtroom to assist Cruz, who sat at the defense table among his attorneys. During Satz’s opening remarks, he mostly just looked down at the pad with a pencil in hand, but he didn’t appear to be writing. Sometimes he looks up to stare at Satz or the jury, stare at the audience, or whisper to his attorney.

After Satz spoke, Cruz’s attorneys announced that they would not issue their opening statement until it was time to present their case a few weeks from now. It’s a rare and risky strategy because it gives Satz a sole voice before jurors consider the grisly evidence and hear testimony from survivors as well as the victim’s parents and spouses. .

When lead defender Melisa McNeill makes her statement, she will likely emphasize that Cruz is a young man with lifelong psychological and emotional problems who is believed to have suffered from fetal alcohol syndrome. children and abuse.

This was the first death penalty trial for Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer. When jurors finally receive the case in the fall, they will vote 17 times, once for each victim, on whether to recommend the death penalty.

All votes must be unanimous. A unanimous vote for any victim would mean that Cruz’s sentence would be life in prison. The jurors are required that in order to vote for the death penalty, in their sentence, the aggravating circumstances presented by the prosecution must outweigh the extenuating circumstances presented by the defense.

Regardless of the evidence, any juror can vote for life on mercy. During the jury’s selection process, the panelists took an oath that they were likely to vote on one of two sentences.



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