FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — The lead prosecutor of Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz made his final push Tuesday to persuade jurors to sentence him to death, telling them during his closing argument that the 2018 attack that killed 17 people was cold, calculated and meticulously planned and deserving of execution.
Mike Satz said Cruz “was hunting his victims” as he stalked a three-story classroom building at Parkland’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School for seven minutes, firing his AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle into some victims at close range and returning to wounded victims as they lay helpless “to finish them off.”
The now 24-year-old Cruz faces life behind bars without the possibility of parole or the death penalty. He pleaded guilty a year ago to killing 14 students and three schoo lstaff members.
The jury will only decide whether he is sentenced to death or life without parole. A unanimous vote is required for a death sentence.
Cruz’s attorneys have contended throughout the trial that his birth mother’s heavy drinking during pregnancy left him with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, causing brain dysfunctions that led to lifelong episodes of bizarre, erratic and sometimes violent conduct that culminated with the shootings.
After several attempts that were blocked by Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer, they were also able to tell jurors Thursday that Cruz believes he was raped and sexually molested numerous times by a neighbor when he was 9.
Prosecutors have spent weeks showing jurors why they believe Cruz should die for the murders.
Jury deliberations could begin Wednesday.
Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.
