Parkland school shooter avoids the death penalty after jury recommends life in prison

Linda Beigel Schulman and Michael Schulman speak at a press conference on Thursday, October 13.

The parents of Marjory Stoneman geography teacher Scott Beigel, who was killed ushering students to safety in the Parkland school shooting, echoed the sentiment of other parents outside court today, saying the gunman should have been sentenced to death.

“If this was not the most perfect death penalty case, then why do we have the death penalty at all?” Linda Beigel Schulman said. “There’s no doubt about the fact that the verdict should have been the death penalty.”

The mother said the state’s attorneys gave a “perfect” execution of the arguments against the gunman.

She stopped short of condemning the jurors personally for their decision to recommend life without the possibility of parole and acknowledged the process was likely traumatizing for them as well.

“It’s anger at the sentencing,” Linda said, and Scott’s father, Michael, interjected: “It’s anger at the system.”

“Justice was not served today,” he added.

You can read about all of the victims here.

Lin Chen speaks at a press conference on Thursday, October 13.

The family of 15-year-old Parkland massacre victim Peter Wang says they are “shocked” at the jury’s decision in the Parkland school shooting case.

“It’s just so unjust,” Wang’s cousin Lin Chen said. “We thought this was clear. This monster killed 17 people, how can he live another day?”

She spoke of how Wang’s mother is traumatized after the shooting.

“My aunt has changed forever … She cannot function normally. She cannot sleep, the constant insomnia. And we came here, thought that we could get a little comfort for my family but no, they just pushed them further,” Chen said.

The families of Parkland shooting victims “have to live knowing the fact that the murderer is in the jail every single day, breathing, eating and getting help by their lawyers,” Chen said. “What about the kids? What about the families? This is not about the shooter.”

Debra Hixon speaks at a press conference on Thursday, October 13.

After a Florida jury recommended Parkland school shooting gunman Nikolas Cruz be sentenced for life without parole, 49-year-old Chris Hixon’s widow said she was “completely devastated and shocked,” and questioned how the jury did not unanimously find that the aggravating factors outweighed the mitigating factors.

“What it says to me, what is says to my family, what it says to the other families is that his life meant more than the 17 that were murdered … and the thousands of people in that school and that community that are terrorized and traumatized every single day,” Debra Hixon said at a press conference Thursday.

“How do you say, ‘yes it’s cruel, that it was heinous, that it was planned and we all agree on that, but oh, he might have had a mental illness or he had trouble growing up,’” Hixon said.

Noting that she has a son with special needs, she said, “I have a son that checked … a lot of those boxes that the shooter did as well, and you know what? My son’s not a murderer. My son’s the sweetest person that you could ever meet.”

“Even if he didn’t [have a good upbringing] how does that outweigh cruel heinous planned? It doesn’t,” she added.

Fred Guttenberg speaks at a press conference on Thursday, October 13.

Fred Guttenberg, the father of 14-year-old Jaime Guttenberg, said the Parkland massacre victims’ families were robbed of justice by a jury’s recommendation to sentence the shooter life in prison rather than the death penalty.

“There are 17 victims that did not receive justice today,” Guttenberg said, addressing reporters outside court.

His daughter was the 16th of the 17th victims whose names were read aloud today. The jury’s recommendations for each count were read in the order the victims were shot.

“This jury failed our families today,” Guttenberg said.

“We are all in this position now of doing the work that we do around this country to keep this from happening to another family,” Guttenberg told reporters. “This decision today only makes it more likely that the next mass shooting will be attempted.”

You can read about all of the victims here.

The parents of Alyssa Alhadeff speak at a press conference on Thursday, October 13.

The parents of 14-year-old Alyssa Alhadeff, who was among the 17 people killed in the Parkland massacre, said they were “disgusted” with the jury’s decision to recommend life in prison over the death penalty for the gunman.

Lori and Ilan Alhadeff spoke to reporters shortly after the recommendation was read in court.

Ilan said his family was “beyond disappointed with the outcome,” adding it “should have been the death penalty — 100%.”

“I’m disgusted with our legal system,” the visibly angry father said outside court. “I’m disgusted with those jurors.”

Both parents questioned the purpose of the death penalty in Florida’s legal system if not for the case of a mass school shooter.

“What is the death penalty for?” Lori asked.

She also called on law enforcement to do more to prevent school shootings, and to act more aggressively to stop them.

“Law enforcement needs to do their job,” the mother said. “Your job as a police officer is to go in, engage and take down the threat. And if you can’t do that, don’t do the job.”

The Alhadeffs said they will continue to work through their nonprofit, Make Schools Safe, to advocate for tougher school safety policies.

Ilan thanked the state for its prosecution of the Parkland gunman, while condemning the trial’s outcome.

“The system continues to fail us,” he said.

About Alyssa Alhadeff: Alyssa, 14, was a student at Stoneman Douglas and a soccer player for Parkland Travel Soccer.

“Alyssa Alhadeff was a loved and well respected member of our club and community,” Parkland Travel Soccer said on Facebook. “Alyssa will be greatly missed.”

Lori told HLN she dropped her daughter off at school the day of the shooting and said, “I love you.” When the mother heard about the attack, she hustled to school, but was too late.

“I knew at that point she was gone. I felt it in my heart,” she said. 

You can read about all of the victims here.

Tony Montalto speaks at a press conference on Thursday, October 13.

After a Florida jury recommended that Parkland school shooting gunman Nikolas Cruz be sentenced for life without parole, 14-year-old Gina Montalto’s father, Tony, criticized the decision.

As the jury did not unanimously find that aggravating factors outweighed the mitigating factors, Montalto questioned how the jury thought that the mitigating factors made Cruz commit these “terrible” acts.

“Pressing the barrel of his weapon to my daughter’s chest and that doesn’t outweigh the poor little what’s-his-name had a tough upbringing? I mean society has to really look and re-examine who and what is a victim. Not everyone’s a victim. My beautiful Gina, the other sons and daughters, spouses and fathers — they were the victims here,” he said at a press conference Thursday.

“It’s pretty unreal that nobody paid attention to the facts of this case,” he added. “I see my beautiful daughter’s face around our home, in my dreams. And I miss her very much.”

Then he read a prepared statement on behalf of Stand With Parkland, an advocacy group he presides over.

“Today’s ruling was yet another gut punch for so many of us who devastatingly lost our loved ones on that tragic Valentine’s Day at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School,” he read. “Seventeen beautiful lives were cut short, by murder — heinous, pre-planned torturous murder. And the monster that killed them gets to live another day.”

“While this sentence fails to punish the perpetrator to the fullest extent of the law, it will not stop our mission of the families that stand with Parkland to effect positive change at a federal, state and local level to prevent school shooting tragedies from shattering other American families,” he added.

Nikolas Cruz sits in court as verdicts are read during the penalty phase of his trial, on October 13.

Parkland school shooter Nikolas Cruz avoided the death penalty after a jury recommended life without the possibility of parole on all counts against him on Thursday.

The jury returned identical answers on aggravating and mitigating circumstances for each of the 17 counts and the same findings and recommendation for every victim.

On each count, the jury found Cruz eligible for the death penalty based on aggravating circumstances – but did not unanimously find that those aggravating factors outweighed the mitigating factors.

Because this had to be unanimous, that finding could have come from any number of jurors – even one.

We don’t know which exactly mitigating factors were in play in those discussions – but we do know which mitigating factors on Cruz’s life were presented at trial. The 41 factors were listed in the jury instructions, and included factors such as “Nikolas Cruz was exposed to drugs in utero,” “Medicated throughout his childhood,” “Nikolas Cruz witnessed the death of his father,” “Nikolas Cruz has remorse” and “Nikolas Cruz pled guilty and accepted responsibility for his crimes.”

After a Florida jury recommended that Nikolas Cruz, 24, be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the Parkland school shooting, Broward Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer set the sentencing date for Nov. 1.

The hearing will begin at 9 a.m. ET. Victims and family members are expected to speak before the sentence is delivered.

Under Florida law, Judge Scherer cannot depart from the jury’s recommendation of life. 

Cruz was tried for months for the February 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, where 17 people were killed, including 14 students and three school staff members. He had pleaded guilty.

Prosecutors had asked the jury to sentence  the gunman, now 24,  to death, arguing in part his crime was especially heinous or cruel.  But without the unanimous jury recommendation required under Florida law, Cruz’s sentence defaults to life, which the gunman’s defense attorneys had argued for, contending  Cruz suffered throughout his life from mental disorders and developmental delays. 

Nikolas Cruz sits at the defense table during his trial on September 2 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Nikolas Cruz will be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the February 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, where 17 people were killed, including 14 students and three school staff members.

A Florida jury recommended the sentence.

Cruz’s sentence comes after a monthslong trial to decide his fate. Prosecutors had asked the jury to sentence the gunman, now 24, to death, arguing in part his crime was especially heinous or cruel. But without the unanimous jury recommendation required under Florida law, Cruz’s sentence defaults to life, which the gunman’s defense attorneys had argued for, contending Cruz suffered throughout his life from mental disorders and developmental delays.

Jurors are looking down or straight ahead as their recommendations for the fate of Parkland massacre gunman Nikolas Cruz are read aloud in court.

None of the jurors are looking in the direction of the victims’ families, some of whom are visibly emotional. Cruz is sitting with his head down, showing no emotion.

The jury came to its decision on whether to sentence Cruz to death or life in prison without the possibility of parole this morning, soon after they began their second day of deliberations.

The jury has recommended life in prison on the initial counts against the Parkland massacre gunman. Their recommendation is still being read.

Nikolas Cruz is sitting with his head down, showing no emotion, as the jury’s recommendation is read in court.

The jury has recommended life in prison on the initial counts against the Parkland massacre gunman. Their recommendation is still being read.

The court is reading the underlying factors in the Nikolas Cruz trial before each sentencing recommendation is delivered. The names of the Parkland school shooting victims are being read in the order as they were shot by Cruz.

The families of the victims are visibly emotional as the decision is being read.

Fourteen-year-old Gina Montalto’s parents began clutching each other’s hands before the reading began, and they started crying through the reading. Fifteen-year-old Luke Hoyer’s mother was also crying.

Fourteen-year-old Jaime Guttenberg’s father and 14-year-old Alaina Petty’s mother were holding their heads in their hands.

Thirty-five-year-old geography teacher Scott Beigel’s stepdad wiped away tears and put his arm around the victim’s mother, who sat stone-faced.

Nikolas Cruz looks up during his trial at the Broward County Courthouse in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on August 22.

A jury is currently reading its decision on the sentence for the Parkland school shooter.

On the first counts, the jury has recommended Nikolas Cruz, 24, be sentenced to life without the possibility of parole for the shooting at Florida’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in February 2018.

The jury is considering 17 counts for the 17 victims of the Parkland school massacre. On each count, the jury will either recommend Cruz be sentenced to life in prison or be sentenced to death. There are several counts that have not yet been read, and the jury could still recommend a death sentence on any of them.

After the news came down that the jury had reached a decision in the Nikolas Cruz trial, several teachers who survived the Parkland school shooting were able to send their students to other classrooms a few minutes before it was supposed to be read, so they could watch together, a teacher at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School told CNN.

Those teachers are watching the coverage together inside a classroom in the school.

The jury’s decision in the sentencing trial of Nikolas Cruz is being read in court now. 

Each count is expected to take several minutes to read.

Cruz pleaded guilty last year to 17 counts of murder and 17 counts of attempted murder in the Valentine’s Day 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida.

The jury was tasked with deciding whether to recommend Cruz be sentenced to death or life in prison without the possibility of parole.

As we wait for the jury’s sentencing decision for Parkland school shooter Nikolas Cruz to be read, the seating section for the victim’s family is full — there’s no empty seat to be seen in the courtroom.

Three alternate jurors are also in the courtroom to hear the verdict.

Lead prosecutor Mike Satz is in there now, too.

Assistant Public Defender Melisa McNeill gives her closing argument in the penalty phase on Tuesday.

Lawyers for Nikolas Cruz are asking jurors to spare the life of the Parkland, Florida school shooter. Lead defense attorney Melisa McNeill asked jurors to sentence her client to life in prison, not the death penalty. She told the panel it’s the right thing to do during her closing arguments. 

McNeill wants jurors to separate Cruz the human being from the mass shooting that left 17 people dead. “What Nikolas Cruz did should make you angry and sad. There is nothing wrong with feeling those feelings,” she told them. 

McNeill said the State is playing on the jury’s emotions by showing them graphic videos and images from the February 14, 2018, massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. “By showing you pictures and videos again, the state of Florida wants to put you in a place of hate, anger, and vengeance,” she said. 

Family members of some of the victims could be seen nodding their heads in disagreement as McNeill spoke.

McNeill appealed to the jury to have mercy on Cruz. “Giving mercy to Nikolas Cruz will say more about who you are, than it says about him,” she said. 

McNeill reminded jurors that this is a decision they can never take back.  

The defense’s case came to an unexpected end when – having called just 26 of 80 planned witnesses – public defenders assigned to represent Cruz abruptly rested, leading the judge to admonish the team for what she said was unprofessionalism, resulting in a courtroom squabble between her and the defense (the jury was not present).

Scherer went on to question Cruz about the decision to rest, making sure he had an opportunity to discuss it with his lawyers and understood it meant no one else, including his brother Zachary Cruz, would take the stand in his defense.

“Are you comfortable with the decision?” Scherer asked.

“Yes,” Cruz replied.

Defense attorneys would later file a motion to disqualify the judge for her comments, arguing in part they suggested the judge was not impartial and Cruz’s right to a fair trial had been undermined. Prosecutors disagreed, writing “judicial comments, even of a critical or hostile nature, are not grounds for disqualification.”

Scherer ultimately denied the motion.

Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School’s 1200 building has been sealed since the massacre on Feb. 14, 2018.

Jurors in the sentencing phase of the school shooter’s trial walked through the undisturbed scene, where the blood of the victims still stains classroom floors.

Bullet holes also mark the walls of the Parkland, Florida, school where Nikolas Cruz killed 14 students and three staff members.

A lock of dark hair remains on a floor more than four years after the body of a victim was taken away. Valentine’s Day gifts and cards are strewn about, as shards of glass crunched beneath of the feet of visitors.

Read more about this here:

Defense attorney Melisa McNeill holds a photograph of Nikolas Cruz’s birth mother, Brenda Woodard, during her closing argument in the penalty phase on Tuesday.

The public defenders assigned to represent Cruz have asked the jury to take into account his troubled history, from a dysfunctional family life to serious mental and developmental issues, with attorney Melisa McNeill describing him earlier in the trial as a “damaged and wounded” person.

“His brain is broken,” she said during her opening statement in August. “He’s a damaged human being.”

Among the first witnesses was Cruz’s older sister, Danielle Woodard, who testified their mother, Brenda Woodard, used drugs and drank alcohol while pregnant with him – something McNeill said made his brain “irretrievably broken” through no fault of his own.

“She introduced me to a life that no child should be introduced to,” she said. “She had no regards for my life or his life.”

The defense also called teachers and educators who spoke to developmental issues and delays Cruz exhibited as a young child, including challenges with vocabulary and motor skills. Various counselors and psychiatrists also testified, offering their observations from years of treating or interacting with Cruz.

Read more about this here.

Assistant State Attorney Mike Satz gestures as if he is holding a rifle while giving his closing argument in the penalty phase on Tuesday.

The lengthy trial of Parkland massacre gunman Nikolas Cruz – jury selection began six months ago, in early April – saw prosecutors and defense attorneys present evidence of aggravating factors and mitigating circumstances, reasons Cruz should or should not be put to death.

The state has pointed to seven such aggravating factors — including that the killings were especially heinous, atrocious or cruel, as well as cold, calculated and premeditated — lead prosecutor Michael Satz said during the trial. Other aggravating factors include the fact the defendant knowingly created a great risk of death to many people and that he disrupted a lawful government function – in this case, the running of a school.

Together, these aggravating factors “outweigh any mitigation about anything about the defendant’s background or character,” Satz said.

Underscoring their argument, prosecutors presented evidence showing the gunman spent months searching online for information about mass shootings and left behind social media comments sharing his express desire to “kill people.”

Some of his Google searches included broad, generic terms, like “murder” or “shooting people.” Others indicated he sought information on specific mass shootings and the people who carried them out. He also searched for a map of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, from which he’d been expelled, and for information on “how long does it take for a cop to show up at a school shooting.” And on YouTube, Cruz left comments like “Im going to be a professional school shooter,” and promised to “go on a killing rampage.”

Read more about this here.

The jury in the death penalty trial of Nikolas Cruz has reached a decision. Its recommendation is expected to be read in court at 10:30 a.m. ET. 

They will recommend whether to recommend the Parkland school shooter be sentenced to death or life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Nikolas Cruz sits at the defense table for closing arguments in the penalty phase in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on Tuesday.

The jury in the death penalty trial of Nikolas Cruz, 24, has reached a decision on whether to sentence the Parkland school shooter to death or life in prison without the possibility of parole. 

The jury’s recommendation is expected to be read in court shortly. 

Cruz pleaded guilty to 17 counts of murder and 17 counts of attempted murder for the February 2018 shooting at Florida’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, in which 14 students and three school staff members were killed, and 17 others were injured. 

Students are brought out of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School after the shooting on February 14, 2018.

Jurors must be unanimous to recommend a death sentence under Florida law, or Cruz will receive a sentence of life in prison. If they recommend death, the ultimate decision on Cruz’s sentence would go to Broward Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer, who could choose to either follow the jury’s guidance or sentence the gunman, now 24, to life in prison.