Suspect Parkland shooter may lose public defender over insurance inheritance; set to receive more than $432,000.
defendant unexpectedly asked to withdraw from the case Wednesday, saying the 20-year-old man will soon inherit nearly a half-million dollars and no longer qualify for free legal representation.
Public Defender Howard Finkelstein and his chief assistant, Gordon Weekes, said their office learned about the insurance policy this week. At a court hearing last year, their office had said the amount was likely to be about $30,000, too little to hire a private attorney. Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer, who is presiding over the criminal case, has not set a hearing on the public defenders' withdrawal motion and she might require them to stay on until that is settled.
The mother had a tumultuous relationship with her sons, calling police dozens of times over the years to say they had been verbally abusive or had damaged her property. Zachary and other family members have said Nikolas Cruz sometimes hit his mother and once threatened her with a gun, but she never reported that. She went with him to buy a gun shortly after he turned 18, but with a caveat.
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