PARKLAND, Fla. — The fate of confessed Parkland shooter Nikolas Cruz will soon be in the hands of the jurors who will determine if Cruz will be sentenced to the death penalty or life in prison for carrying out the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School massacre.
Closing arguments in the penalty phase trial were held Tuesday, more than four years after Cruz, then 19, gunned down 14 students and three staff members at his former Florida high school. Cruz pleaded guilty last year to 17 counts of first-degree murder and 17 counts of attempted first-degree murder.
"He's thinking ahead," Satz said, by"not only looking to inflict pain" on the victim, but also"anticipating how that pain, fear and death…is gonna affect the families."Satz recounted how Cruz's phone revealed a video filmed three days before the carnage, in which Cruz said:"I'm going to be the next school shooter…my goal is to kill at least 20 people.
Also among those killed on the third floor was 15-year-old Peter Wang, who was shot a total of 12 times, Satz said. While Wang was lying on the ground injured, Cruz shot him in the head four times, the prosecutor said. The Broward County School Board classified Cruz as"developmentally delayed in all areas" and said he had"a language impairment," McNeill noted. The district classified him as an"ESE" student, or a special needs child, she said.
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