Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz was ‘damaged’ person, victim of bad parenting: attorney
An attorney for Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz pleaded with jurors to consider the 23-year-old gunman’s troubled upbringing when deciding whether he should be put to death or spend his life in prison without the possibility for parole.
During the defense’s long-awaited opening arguments in Cruz’s sentencing trial in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., on Monday, public defender Melisa McNeill told jurors in the decades before he killed 17 people in Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in February 2018, Cruz was a victim of neglectful parenting and Broward County school officials.
Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooter Nikolas Cruz looks up as Assistant Public Defender Melisa McNeill gives the defense's opening statement during the penalty phase of his trial at the Broward County Courthouse in Fort Lauderdale on Monday, Aug. 22, 2022. (Amy Beth Bennett/)
“Everyone knows there is one person responsible for all that pain and all of that suffering, and that person is Nikolas Cruz,” McNeil conceded.
But she also argued Cruz’s birth mother Brenda Woodard, abused cocaine and booze throughout her pregnancy, which was likely known by the couple who adopted the boy, and claimed Roger and Linda Cruz ignored early warning signs the child had endured “damage.”
In addition to being a slow learner at the age of 2, Cruz was frightened of his preschool classmates, McNeil contended. His quirks allegedly included hiding under a classroom table and pretending he was a tiger. He was also reportedly aggressive toward other children.
After Cruz’s adoptive father died, Linda Cruz allegedly found herself increasingly unable to deal with the troubled boy or his brother Zachary, who they’d also taken in. Linda Cruz called the police several dozen times to deal with the children, Cruz’s defense attorney told the court.
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Assistant Public Defender Melisa McNeill gives the defense's opening statement during the penalty phase of the trial of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooter Nikolas Cruz at the Broward County Courthouse in Fort Lauderdale on Monday, Aug. 22, 2022. (Amy Beth Bennett/)
Linda Cruz allegedly ignored mental health experts’ warnings not to buy her son a BB gun when he turned 18. Cruz was 19 years old when he entered the Parkland, Fla., high school with an AR-15 type rifle and fired roughly 150 rounds, killing 14 students and three adults. She died four months before her son’s shooting spree.
Jurors have heard horrific details of the slaughter since Cruz’s hearing began on July 18. McNeill opted to hold off on giving her opening statement until Monday, needing just a single juror to vote in favor of a life sentence to keep her client alive.
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The court took a two-week break after prosecutors wrapped up their case earlier in the month. The jurors have visited the bullet-riddled school where the mass shooting took place on Valentine’s Day 2018. Jurors also saw autopsy photos of mutilated teenagers.
McNeil acknowledged jurors had witnessed “things that will haunt them for the rest of their lives,” but argued it’s her job to make sure the people who had her client’s fate in their hands understood Cruz’s history.
“You have to make a decision about whether another human being lives or dies,” McNeill said.
With News Wire Services
