Meghan Petty, sister of 14-year-old victim Alaina Petty, said she feels “betrayed by our justice system” with the jury rejecting the death penalty, and feels vulnerable sharing her pain with the public.

Alaina was shot multiple times, including through the heart, she said. Alaina died scared on a classroom floor, trying to hide behind a desk, she said.

“This entire ordeal has pushed me to my emotional, physical and mental limits. It will continue to do so for the rest of my life, even more so now that he has escaped being punished to the fullest extent of the law,” Petty said.

She called Nikolas Cruz a “remorseless monster who deserves no mercy.”

“This incredible darkness that he has within him -- which has been labeled here as mental illness -- is something that should be considered unacceptable and intolerable,” Petty said. But she said his life sentence sends the message to future shooters that “if one stretches the truth, they can get away with not only murder, but mass murder.”

“What we’ve been told here is 17 lives are worth nothing if you can make enough excuses for your actions,” she said.

Petty noted that she and Cruz are the same age.

“I could sit here and complain, as he has, that I’ve had a hard life. I was bullied in school. I’ve lost 15 family members and loved ones since I turned 9 to sickness, suicide, accident and now murder. Not once have I turned to ever hurting others … because I’m not a coward and I’m not weak,” she said.

"I will never get to say goodbye to her," she said of her sister. "She's never going to go to college, get a job, get married ... or even breathe again. But he'll be able to draw breath."

On the day of the shooting, Ines Hixon, daughter-in-law of slain coach Chris Hixon, was deployed on a U.S. aircraft carrier off the coast of Iran.

“He would’ve given the shirt off his back. He was a courageous, loving and wonderful man. And I never got the chance to tell him that,” she said through tears.

“As a service member, I took an oath to defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic. And to the defendant, that’s exactly what I view you as -- a domestic terrorist,” Ines Hixon said. “I wish no peace for you. I wish nothing but pain. And I hope that every breath you take, you remember that’s a breath you stole.”

After Ines Hixon spoke, Judge Elizabeth Scherer called her a “hero,” adding that her “beautiful family” has “made such an impression on this court.”

“I thank you for your service and bravery,” the judge added.

Patricia Oliver, whose 17-year-old son, Joaquin, was among the victims, said in an impassioned statement, if this case “doesn’t deserve the death penalty, what does?”

“You had in your head enjoyment,” she said directly to Nikolas Cruz. “Listen to me, defendant -- enjoyment while killing my son, Joaquin Oliver, and coming back to him to blow his brain out.”

“Your living hell is about to get started,” she said. “Joaquin is a legend for what he is and for what he will be. Nice, kind, humble. And you will remember every single day of your life about what Joaquin is.”

Bree Wikander was overcome with emotion as she spoke on behalf of her son, Ben, who was shot three times, including in the back. Ben was 17 at the time and suffered extensive injuries.

“One of Ben’s trauma surgeons … once said to us, Ben sustained injuries similar to what a soldier would in combat,” she said.

“To this day he is still recovering,” Bree Wikander said. “You will never understand the pain that he has gone through. His life and the lives of our entire family have changed forever both physically and mentally.”

Ben’s father, Eric Wikander, said he hopes Cruz has a “painful existence” in prison, adding that it would still be “a fraction of what Ben endured.”