Oct. 13 (UPI) — Jurors on Thursday recommended life in prison without parole for Nikolas Cruz, who pleaded guilty to carrying out the Valentine’s Day 2018 murders at Marjory Stone Douglas High School in Florida.
Jurors found Parkland School shooter Cruz was guilty of aggravating factors that warranted a possible death sentence but said that they did not outweigh the mitigating factors. A unanimous decision would have been required to issue a death sentence.
Cruz pleaded guilty to 17 counts of first-degree murder in the 2018 Valentine’s Day mass shooting at Marjory Stone Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.
The defense abruptly rested their case Sept. 14. Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer lambasted them for “the most uncalled for, unprofessional way to try a case.”
The defense had argued Cruz should get life in prison rather than the death penalty.
The jury’s sentencing verdicts for all 17 people killed by Cruz were read during the livestream from the Florida courtroom Thursday.
Prosecutors for weeks told the jurors how Cruz came to the school armed with a rifle and killed 17 people. They called Cruz “cold, calculative, manipulative and deadly.”
