Samantha Fuentes, a former classmate of Cruz, spoke of her life after the tragedy and the trauma of being a survivor of the mass school shooting.

"I always have PTSD, depression, anxiety, suicidal ideations," she said in court.

She said she lives in "constant fear" of someone like Cruz.

She said she was angry with the verdict, though, unlike Cruz, "I'll never take my anger, pain and suffering out on others because I am stronger than you."

The mother of Alyssa Alhadeff remembered her daughter's "beautiful smile and contagious laugh."

But she also remembered seeing her 14-year-old daughter in the medical examiner's office after she was killed in the Parkland shooting.

"All I wanted to do was to bring Alyssa back to life. But I couldn't protect her, and I couldn't save her," Lori Alhadeff said during her statement in court.

She addressed Cruz, speaking angrily.

"My hope for you is that you are miserable for the rest of your pathetic life," she said. "My hope for you is that the pain of what you did to my family burns and traumatizes you every day."

Alyssa's father, Ilan Marc Alhadeff, said the verdict brings no accountability or closure.

"What I see is that the system values this animal's life over the 17 now dead," he said. "Worse, we sent the message to the next killer out there that the death penalty would not be applied to mass killers. This is wrong and needs to be fixed immediately."

Alyssa's uncle also addressed the court via Zoom at the start of the hearing, remembering her as being full of empathy and care.

He finished his statement with strong words for Cruz: "Rot in hell."

Annika Dworet, whose son Nicholas Dworet was killed, expressed disappointment at the jury's decision not to recommend the death penalty.

"We sat in this courtroom every day during this trial. We listened to every witness. We saw every piece of evidence," she said. "It is heartbreaking how any person who heard and saw all this did not give this killer the worst punishment possible."

"How much worse would the crime have to be to warrant death penalty?" she asked.

She said she also was offended by the behavior of the defense team during the trial, including "holding, touching and giggling with this cold-blooded murder."

Anthony Montalto, whose older sister, 14-year-old Gina, was killed, recalled his parents coming home the night of Feb. 14, 2018, with tears in their eyes, telling him his only sibling was dead.

He said he wishes he said goodbye to her that morning.

“I will never be able to watch TV with her, talk about books with her. Every day I walk by her room and see that it’s empty. … Every day I wake up and I remember that she will not be there,” Montalto said.

He called Nikolas Cruz a “murdering bastard” and said Cruz should’ve been sentenced to death.

“He shouldn’t live while my sister rots in a grave,” Montalto said.

Montalto said he hopes the jurors who voted for a life sentence regret their decision after hearing his testimony.

Gina Montalto’s father, Tony Montalto, added in court, “If the jury took in the evidence presented, there is only logical and fact-based outcome. Sadly, the jury ignored the facts and went with emotion. They worried how they’d feel ... [if Cruz] was put to death.”

“Did they consider what kind of message their verdict sent to our nation’s students and teachers?” he continued. “Did they consider how they would explain their verdict to the siblings of the victims, as my wife and I struggled to do?”

"I don't believe the case was fair to the victims. The court allowed the defense to show every aspect" of Cruz's life before the massacre, he said, yet victims' families could not bring photos of their loved ones to court or wear pins to honor them.

"The court did everything it could to dehumanize our beautiful Gina, her classmates and her teachers," he said. "My family and the others had to sit like church mice in the courtroom for fear of influencing the jury."

"This injustice must be fixed. The victims' rights must be recognized," he stressed.