Parkland trial: Nikolas Cruz spared death penalty, grieving parents react
"I could not be more disappointed," dad Fred Guttenberg said after court.
Parkland school shooter Nikolas Cruz has been spared the death penalty and sentenced to life in prison by a Florida jury for carrying out the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School that claimed 17 lives.
Cruz pleaded guilty last year to 17 counts of first-degree murder and 17 counts of attempted first-degree murder in connection to the Feb. 14, 2018, killing of 14 students and three staff members at his former school. Among the victims were 15-year-old Peter Wang, an Army Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps cadet who died while helping classmates escape, and 35-year-old Scott Beigel, a geography teacher who was shot dead while shepherding students to safety in his classroom.
This penalty phase trial was to determine if Cruz would be sentenced to death or life in prison for the massacre he committed at age 19.
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Fred Guttenberg: ‘Jury failed our families’
Fred Guttenberg, whose 14-year-old daughter, Jaime, was killed in the massacre, said after court, "I'm not often stunned, but I am stunned by this verdict today."
"I could not be more disappointed," he said.
“I don't know how this jury came to the conclusions that they did," he said.
“This decision today only makes it more likely that the next mass shooting will be attempted,” he said.
Guttenberg said he thinks the next mass shooter is planning his attack now, and "that person now believes that they can get away with it."
“There are 17 victims that did not receive justice today,” Guttenberg said. “This jury failed our families today. But I will tell you: The monster is gonna go to prison, and in prison, I hope and pray, he receives the kind of mercy from prisoners that he showed to my daughter and the 16 others. … He will die in prison, and I will be waiting to read that news on that.”
Victim's dad: Cruz 'did not deserve compassion'
Tony Montalto, whose 14-year-old daughter, Gina, was killed, called the jury’s decision a “gut punch.”
“Pressing the barrel of his weapon to my daughter's chest. That doesn't outweigh [that Nikolas Cruz] had a tough upbringing?” Montalto said.
“Society has to really look and reexamine who and what is a victim. Not everyone's a victim. My beautiful Gina. the other sons, daughters, spouses and fathers -- they were the victims here. Our justice system should have been used to punish this shooter to the fullest extent of the law,” he said. “Not as an act of revenge, but to protect our nation's schools.”
“I think that it puts all school children in jeopardy. It certainly sends the wrong message,” he continued. “This shooter did not deserve compassion.”
Dad of slain 14-year-old: Cruz ‘got everything he wanted’
Max Schachter, whose 14-year-old son Alex was killed, tweeted that Nikolas Cruz “got everything he wanted” with the life sentence verdict.
"Prior to the shooting the Parkland murderer said he wanted to kill 20 people. He stopped after killing 17 including my sweet little boy Alex. Afterwards he didn’t want to die,” Schachter tweeted.
Meanwhile, “Our loved ones are in the cemetery.”
Parents of 14-year-old victim: ‘I pray that animal suffers’
Ilan Alhadeff, whose 14-year-old daughter Alyssa was killed, was disappointed by the life sentence.
He told reporters after the verdict that Nikolas Cruz is “not a human being -- he’s an animal.”
"I pray that animal suffers every day of his life in jail. And that he has a short life,” he said.
When asked if he was relieved he didn't have to see Cruz in court anymore, he responded, "It doesn't matter. We still have to go to the cemetery to see our daughter."
Alyssa’s mother, Lori Alhadeff, added, "What is the death penalty for if not for the killing of 17 people?"
Juror describes ‘very tense’ experience in letter to judge
One of the jurors who voted not to sentence Nikolas Cruz to death detailed some of her experience in a handwritten letter to the judge.
She wrote the letter in an effort to dispel alleged rumors that she always intended to vote against the death penalty.
“[Another juror] heard jurors who voted for the death penalty stating that I had already made up my mind on voting for life before the trial started,” she wrote. “This allegation is untrue and I maintained my oath to the court that I would be fair and unbiased.”
The letter goes on to describe the jury deliberations as “very tense,” with the juror adding that “some jurors became extremely unhappy once I mentioned that I would vote for life.”