Nikolas Cruz

Nikolas Cruz confessed to killing 17 people in 2018 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. A jury will weigh the death penalty.

On the morning of the shooting, Cruz told them he didn't need a ride to school. He is a broken child," assistant public defender Melisa McNeill said in the days after the shooting. And that if I were to get a second chance, I will do everything in my power to try to help others," Cruz said after pleading guilty in October, one of the only times he spoke in the courtroom. A year later, she told deputies he had punched a wall when she took away the Xbox again. He was born Sept. 24, 1998, to a woman with a history of drug use. He had counselors in school and at home and he took medications, DCF records show. "It is impossible on a case like this to get a fair and impartial jury," he said. On the day of the massacre, Cruz, then 19, took an Uber to the school from a nearby home where he was living. He shot students in the hallways and through the window of classrooms with the AR-15. Since preschool, Cruz had a history of threatening, frightening, unusual and sometimes violent behavior, according to court records. He had been a student at the high school before being expelled 13 months before. It was was originally scheduled to start in 2020 but was delayed numerous times during the coronavirus pandemic.

Jury selection began Monday to determine whether Nikolas Cruz will be put to death for murdering 17 students and staff at a Parkland, Florida high school.

The parents and spouses of victims who have spoken publicly said they are in favor of Cruz’s execution. The suspect in the 2019 massacre of 23 at an El Paso, Texas, Walmart is still awaiting trial. “I just hope everyone remembers the victims,” he said. The prospective jurors are being asked if they can put aside any animosity toward Cruz and judge the case fairly. They will be brought back in several weeks later for individual questioning. He pleaded guilty in October to the Feb. 14, 2018, massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, meaning the jury will only decide if he receives a death sentence or life without parole.

Jury selection begins for Nikolas Cruz, who pleaded guilty to the premeditated murder in 2018 of 14 students and three members of the staff at Marjory ...

Cruz was 18 when he legally purchased from a licensed gun dealer the AR-15-style rifle used in the shooting. If any of the 12 jurors objects, Cruz will be sentenced to life in prison without parole. Jury selection began on Monday in the penalty phase of the trial of the man who killed 17 students and staff at a Florida high school on Valentine’s Day in 2018, one of the deadliest school shootings in U. S history.

The first group of 60 jury trials submitted to the Court of Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scheller what was expected to be a two-month process of selecting 12 ...

In order for Cruz, a former Stoneman Douglas student, to be sentenced to death, the jury said that exacerbating factors such as the number of people he killed, plans, and cruelty were alleviating factors such as lifelong mental illness and the death penalty. “I told the world about my plans on social media, carried them out in a calm and calculated way, and killed my beautiful daughter, 13 classmates, and 3 teachers,” Cruz said. That is, the jury only decides whether he will be sentenced to death or life imprisonment without parole. Twenty-three suspects of the 2019 massacre in El Paso, Texas, are still awaiting trial. Court officials say more than 1,500 candidates can be brought in front of Scheller, the prosecutor, and Cruz’s elected counsel for initial screening. He pleaded guilty to the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School from October to February 14, 2018.

The freshman building at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High is expected to be demolished after the trial for Nikolas Cruz, who killed 17 people there.

The jurors “don’t need to see all of those horrible things,” defense lawyer Melisa McNeill told the judge. “There is no one video, photograph, poster, film, anything, that captures what the ... building is,” Broward prosecutor Carolyn McCann told the judge last week. The building has been locked but kept largely intact since the massacre on Valentine’s Day of 2018.