The defense wants to show that from Cruz’s birth to a hard-drinking, crack-smoking Fort Lauderdale prostitute, he never fully received needed help even as he grew increasingly out of control.Īnd nowhere was that more apparent than in the home Roger and Lynda Cruz built in Parkland, an upscale Fort Lauderdale suburb. In an attempt to counter that, assistant public defender Melisa McNeill and her team have made Cruz’s history their case’s centerpiece, hoping at least one juror will vote for life. Parents and spouses gave tearful and angry statements about their loss. He showed graphic autopsy and crime scene photos and took jurors to the still blood-stained, bullet-pocked classroom building Cruz terrorized. Teachers and students testified about watching others die. He played security videos of the shooting and showed the AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle Cruz used. Lead prosecutor Mike Satz’s case was straightforward.
MID AIR THIEF TRIAL
The trial resumes Monday after a week off. His trial is only to decide whether he is sentenced to death or life without parole. Nikolas Cruz, 23, pleaded guilty in October to murdering 17 students and staff members at Parkland’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Feb. In turn, “they were very good at pushing (their mother’s) buttons.” “Nikolas was very easily set off and I think Zachary derived some pleasure from pushing Nikolas’ buttons,” testified Frederick Kravitz, one of Cruz’s childhood psychologists. Most calls were for fighting, destroying her property, disrespecting her or running away. Lynda Cruz called sheriff’s deputies to the family’s 4,500-square-foot (420-square-meter) home at least two dozen times between 20 to deal with one son, the other or both. Zachary may have been two years younger, but he was bigger and stronger and relentlessly picked on his brother - one social worker remembered Zachary climbing atop a counter and stepping in Nikolas’ cereal as he ate. They destroyed televisions and carved gashes in furniture, witnesses said. By the time Cruz reached middle school in the early 2010s, the pair took their fists and baseball bats to the walls, leaving gaping holes. He and his half-brother Zachary tormented their adoptive, widowed mother, Lynda.
(AP) - Chaos reigned in the home where Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz grew up, testimony in his ongoing penalty trial has shown.
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