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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Defense says Cruz suffered lifelong developmental delays, prosecution says he planned ‘systematic massacre’
Cruz's defense attorneys had urged the jury to sentence him to life in prison. The defense admitted Cruz was responsible for his actions and planned the school shooting, but argued Cruz suffered lifelong developmental delays that traced back to fetal alcohol spectrum disorders.
"Sentencing Nikolas to death will change absolutely nothing," defense attorney Melisa McNeill said in closing arguments. "It will not bring back those 17 innocent victims that he viciously murdered."
The prosecution, arguing for the death penalty, told jurors that Cruz researched previous mass shootings and planned a "systematic massacre."
"Some of the remarks the defendant wrote on his YouTube were: 'No mercy, no questions, double tap. I'm going to ... murder children. ... I'd love to see the families suffer,'" prosecutor Michael Satz said in closing arguments.
"He's thinking ahead," Satz said, by "not only looking to inflict pain" on the victims, but also "anticipating how that pain, fear and death ... is gonna affect the families."
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?"