A prosecutor on Monday urged jurors to condemn to demise the gunman who killed 17 individuals in a mass capturing at a Florida highschool in 2018.
The penalty trial of Florida college shooter Nikolas Cruz started on Monday, the deadliest US mass capturing to go earlier than a jury.
Cruz, 23, pleaded responsible final October to 17 counts of first-degree homicide at Marjory Stoneman Douglas highschool within the deaths of 14 college students and three workers members there on 14 February 2018, and is now solely contesting his sentence.
Jurors should resolve whether or not he will get the demise penalty or life in jail with out parole.
Lead prosecutor Mike Satz had been anticipated to spotlight Cruz’s brutality as he stalked a three-storey classroom constructing, firing his AR-15 semi-automatic rifle down hallways and into school rooms.
Cruz typically walked again to wounded victims and killed them with a second volley of photographs.
On Monday afternoon, Satz informed the Broward county jurors that Cruz dedicated “goal-directed, deliberate, systematic homicide – mass homicide – of 14 college students, an athletic director, a instructor and a coach”.
About three dozen relations of the victims had been within the courtroom, sitting collectively in a roped-off part.
Some shook their heads or wept as Satz described the bloodbath, naming every of the 17 individuals who died and one other 17 injured within the assault.
Wearing a gray-and-black sweater and sporting a black face masks to restrict the unfold of coronavirus, Cruz slumped in his seat, trying down, for a lot of Satz’s assertion. He appeared to write down a number of notes and cross them to his lawyer.
The trial for the previous Stoneman Douglas scholar, anticipated to final about 4 months, was supposed to start in 2020, however the Covid-19 pandemic and authorized fights delayed it.
Cruz in his responsible plea mentioned he was “very sorry” and requested to be given an opportunity to assist others. Satz mentioned aggravating components within the case together with premeditation outweighed arguments for leniency together with Cruz’s historical past of psychological well being issues.
Referring to Cruz primarily as “the defendant” somewhat than by title, Satz mentioned Cruz had deliberate to be a faculty shooter lengthy earlier than the assault. Jurors will see video of the crime taken by cameras on the college, Satz mentioned.
Brittany Sinitch, a instructor on the college, was referred to as because the prosecution’s first witness, and described calling the 911 emergency quantity from her classroom. Her college students had been writing Valentine’s Day letters as characters from Romeo and Juliet because the assault started.
“Nearly immediately, I referred to as 911. They couldn’t hear me over the sound of the gunshots; it was so loud,” she mentioned.
The Parkland capturing is the deadliest to achieve trial in US historical past. 9 different gunmen who killed not less than 17 individuals died throughout or instantly after their shootings, both by suicide or police gunfire.
The suspect within the 2019 slaying of 23 individuals in an anti-immigrant capturing at an El Paso, Texas, Walmart is awaiting trial.
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