Nikolas Cruz

In a Florida court Monday, lawyers for Nikolas Cruz, who killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018, will ask a jury to spare his life ...

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Follow the New York Post's live coverage of the sentencing trial for Parkland school shooter Nikolas Cruz, who faces the death penalty in Florida.

However, the panelists said under oath during selection that they are capable of voting for either sentence. Prosecutors played a video of the events in Kraemer's classroom, which depicted multiple loud gunshots over frightened shouts of "Oh s--t!" It's cold, calculated, manipulative and deadly," Satz said, ending his opening statements. He was turned down, however, and arrested soon afterward. Cruz's legal team had the chance to also make its opening statement Monday, but chose to wait until after the prosecution case has been presented. "Eventually the shooter started shooting through the window [in the door] and bullets were flying through," he said. during a video of the shooting played as part of ex-student Dylan Kraemer's testimony. Gilbert cried as she watched the video from the stand. "Talk to me, please!" The trial is expected to last about four months. I'm very scared," she posted. "Hello? You still there?"

The gunman who killed 14 students and three adults at a Parkland, Florida, high school in 2018 was "cold, calculative, manipulative and deadly" in carrying ...

The court spent weeks whittling down a pool of hundreds of potential jurors to a group of 12 jurors and 10 alternates. But state Judge Elizabeth Scherer denied the motion, saying shootings in Buffalo and Uvalde had not compromised court proceedings or his ability to get a fair trial. "She obviously did that on purpose to get out of jury selection," the judge said, according to the TV station. A defendant in Florida deemed guilty of a capital offense undergoes a separate phase of court proceedings to determine the sentence. The penalty phase could include jurors visiting the scene of the mass shooting, according to court documents. She took several videos of the shooting, and the audio from those were played in court Monday. Dylan Kraemer, another Stoneman Douglas student in 2018, said he was in classroom 1214 in a class titled "History of the Holocaust" when he heard gunshots. Someone in the courtroom could be heard yelling, "Shut it off!" After several minutes, police arrive at the room and treat the injured. She called 911, but "they couldn't hear me over the sound of the gunshots," she said. The prosecution began opening statements with a detailed timeline of the attack. In court, Cruz sat silently during the proceedings, wearing large glasses, a black face mask, a collared shirt and a sweater.

A Florida prosecutor told jurors how mass shooter Nikolas Cruz murdered 17 people and injured 17 others at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Feb.

Cruz fled the scene without his rifle, Satz. He blended in with students and teachers evacuating from the school. Anticipating confusion from the jurors, Satz said that this crime was a burglary because Cruz entered the school without permission to commit an offense. Walks into the stairwell as NC is preparing his M&P rifle and NC says “you better get out of here, something bad is about to happen.”@LawCrimeNetwork He said he was going to be the next school shooter of 2018, planning to kill at least 20 people. From there, Cruz stalked the classroom building, opening fire on students and educators on the first, second, and third floors. He said it was going to be a big event.

Nikolas Cruz faces life in prison without parole, or the death penalty for killing 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in February 2018.

The 45-year-old, a former Broward County prosecutor, has been the subject of scrutiny since she was assigned to Cruz's trial in 2018. Melisa McNeill, who was appointed as chief assistant public defender to the Broward County Major Crimes Division in 2018, is Cruz's lead public defender. Cruz pleaded guilty to a second-degree felony in 2021 for assaulting a prison guard at the Broward County Jail nine months after the Parkland shooting. Scherer denied the motion to recuse herself. Many, like Fred Guttenberg, whose 14-year-old daughter died at Stoneman Douglas, have become outspoken advocates of gun reform in the years since their children's deaths. Cruz avoided a criminal trial when he pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in October, delaying the release of prosecutors' evidence against him. She also ruled that no graphic material will appear on TV monitors in the courtroom, so as to prevent leaks to the public. A slew of legal complications and controversies has delayed the trial for months, including last-minute motions by the defense to withhold certain graphic evidence from jurors. Seven men and five women make up the jury. To say their bodies have been "torn apart by rifle fire" would not be an exaggeration, the defense wrote. Cruz’s mental health likely will be at the center of the trial. It occupies the courthouse's largest courtroom, which is located on the 17th floor and can seat 265 people.

The lead prosecutor spelled out in clinical detail the 6 minutes, 22 seconds it took Nikolas Cruz to murder 17 people and injure 17 others in 2018.

Then he couldn't run any longer and attempted to hide himself in the alcove of a bathroom, but was killed after Cruz walked up to him and fired three more rounds from his AR-15 rifle. He killed five students and one teacher on the third floor. The shooting ended at 2:27:55, less than seven minutes after it began, Satz said. The first was Brittany Sinitch, a Stoneman Douglas teacher. The trial is expected to last four months. "'I’m going to be the next school shooter of 2018. It’s going to be a big event, and when you see me on the news, you’ll know who I am. She and her students were studying "Romeo and Juliet" during fourth period on the first floor of the freshman building. Cruz made his way up to the third floor, where students were scrambling in the hallway after a fire alarm was set off by the percussion of the AR-15 rounds. About 50 family members attended Monday's hearing. You’re all going to die. Oliver, 17, was shot in the leg as he tried to run away on the third floor of the building where the shootings took place.

Nikolas Cruz, 23, pleaded guilty in October to 17 counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of 14 students and three staff members at Marjory Stoneman ...

The jurors are told that to vote for the death penalty, the aggravating circumstances the prosecution has presented for the victim in question must, in their judgment, “outweigh” mitigating factors presented by the defense. It wasn’t clear if anyone was present in the courtroom to support Cruz, who sat at the defense table between his attorneys. During jury selection, the panelists said under oath that they are capable of voting for either sentence. The trial, which is expected to last four months, was supposed to begin in 2020, but it was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic and legal fights. “This is what the defendant said: `Hello, my name is Nik. I’m going to be the next school shooter of 2018. Some were shot sitting at their desks, some as they fled and some as they lay bleeding on the floor while Cruz methodically stalked through a three-story building for almost seven minutes.

The penalty trial of Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz began on Monday, the deadliest U.S. mass shooting to go before a jury.

In Parkland shooter's sentencing trial a woman shouted 'Turn it off! Turn it off!' when Snapchat videos from inside a classroom began to play.

A woman sitting among the victims' families shouted "Turn it off! Turn it off!" If it recommends death, Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer will make the final ruling, likely sometime this fall.