Jury selection begins on charges that Nikolas Cruz attacked a jail guard nine months after the 2018 shootings at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.
nine months after the Feb. 14, 2018, shootings at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.
Cruz, 23, faces a possible 15-year sentence if convicted of attempted criminal battery on a law enforcement officer and three lesser charges. Cruz will get either death or life in prison without parole if he is later found guilty of first-degree murder, but this trial still has relevance. If Cruz is convicted of attacking Beltran, prosecutors can argue that is an aggravating factor when they seek his execution during the penalty phase of his murder trial if convicted.
Cruz's public defenders declined comment, saying they don't want to further traumatize the shooting victims' families by discussing their client. Cruz’s attorneys say the sheriff’s office erased video of the three hours Cruz and Beltran spent together before the fight — even though they asked within a day that it be preserved and were told it would be.
Cruz flips both middle fingers at Beltran and then charges the guard, who stands up to defend himself. Cruz, who weighs about 130 pounds , throws the larger Beltran to the ground, before the guard is able to flip him and briefly pin him. Cruz grabs Beltran's stun gun and they fight over it as it goes off, apparently jolting neither, before the guard wrests it away.
Because of Cruz's infamy in South Florida, jury selection is scheduled to last three days — in a typical jail battery trial with a defendant the public doesn't know, it would likely take a few hours. The court plans to screen 400 people to seat six jurors plus alternates. The typical pool for jail battery trials and similar felonies is 22, according to The Florida Bar.
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