Law&Crime Sidebar - Parkland School Shooting: Choosing Life or Death for a Monster

Episode Date: November 8, 2022

Law & Crime Network's Jesse Weber provides a full recap of the trial for the Parkland school shooter: the shocking details, the emotional testimony and the wild outbursts.LAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokePodcasting - Sam GoldbergVideo Editing - Logan HarrisGuest Booking - Alyssa FisherSocial Media Management - Kiera BronsonSUBSCRIBE TO OUR OTHER PODCASTS:Court JunkieObjectionsThey Walk Among AmericaCoptales and CocktailsThe Disturbing TruthSpeaking FreelyLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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But I hope you're ever-breathing moment here on Earth is miserable and you repent for your sins, Nicholas, and burn in hell. It is a full recap of the trial for the Parkland School Shooter, the shocking details, the emotional testimony, and the wild outbursts. Welcome to Sidebar, presented by Long Crime. I'm Jesse Weber. The trial for the Parkland

school shooter could honestly have been, in my opinion, covering a lot of trials here on Long Crime, one of the toughest cases that we have ever covered. I know for me personally, I can say that. And the reason for that is because this is a case unlike anything we've ever covered. This the penalty trial for Nicholas Cruz, the young man who pleaded guilty to 17 counts of murder and 17 counts of attempted murder for opening fire at Marjorie Stoman Douglas High School back in February of 2018. And all that this Florida jury had to decide after the defendant pleaded guilty was what should be his punishment? Should it be life in prison or should it be the death penalty? Not an easy decision in any case. And you had a jury that over the course of

almost three months just was presented with a mountain of evidence to consider and decide this important question. And they were forced to weigh the aggravating factors put on by the state versus the mitigating factors put on by the defense. And there is a lot that happened and a lot to look back on. So we decided to do a full recap of this trial of some of the most major moments. Let's start with understanding the horror of that day. And the prosecution showed this jury a lot, a lot. That included eyewitnesses themselves, including those who were shot. Please tell us what you remember happened in Dornforth period. We were in the hallway, or sorry, we were in the classroom. We finished up with our work out of nowhere.

We heard very, very loud sound, assumably gunshots. We all ran to the corner of the room. So I went to the room next to the door, the other half of the class one, to diagonal the window. And we knocked down a file cabinet, tried to get behind it, get as many students behind it, and kind of just waited. And then I peered it on the corner, and eventually the shooter started shooting through the window, and bullets were flying through, ducking down, waiting 20, 30 seconds, and then it stopped. kept going on and I looked over and two people were dead and multiple people were shot okay and you said the bullets came through the window describe where

this window was window was in the door into the classroom right in the window okay and did you see anything through the window yes sir what did you saw the shooter what did you look like wearing a hat glasses a vest and I could see his gun and did you see the gun yes sir what did the gun look like A large AR-15. Okay. So you said that two students were dead. Who were that?

Nicholas Darrett and Helena Ramsey. Okay. And did you see anyone who else was wounded? Yes. Who was wounded? Sam Grady, Sam Plantes, Isabel Checker. I can't remember.

Most people. I realized, you know, something's wrong. But I still didn't want to believe that it was, you know, a shoot shooting or anything. So I was trying to stay calm. And then the people next to me were like, oh, are you okay, you know, are you, you know, do you feel like you're going to die or, you know, something like that. And then I was just sitting there and then I looked straight ahead of me and I saw Alex Shackner passed away over his desk, kind of like half of his body. There was like a bar on the desk and half of his body was off the bar and the other half was like still kind

of in a seat and I saw a pile of blood like forming under him and I saw his body not spasmin but more like trying to take his like final breaths and then at that moment you know started getting more real. I saw the shooter emerge from the stairwell so I just sort of saw him walk and my memory is that he was standing in front of the stairwell sort of displaying the rifle back and forth and it was just shot after shot after shot it just never stopped kids were running kids kept coming into my classroom a few things here to break down first of all I should tell you that even though this wasn't a trial to determine guilt the prosecution had to lay out all aspects of the shooting to this jury they're still trying to prove a case here

and the jury needs to understand the scene the circumstances it's all important in the penalty phase. And we have to remember that the prosecution here had to prove seven aggravating factors. They had seven aggravating factors that they were trying to prove beyond a reasonable doubt in support of the death penalty. I'm just going to mention a few here to keep in mind. One of them, the first degree murders were especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel. The first degree murders were committed in a cold, calculated, and premeditated manner without any pretense of moral or legal justification. The first degree murders were committed to disrupt or hinder the lawful exercise of any government function or the enforcement of laws,

that's important because of the educators who were killed during school hours. So just keep some of these factors in mind when you hear more about the evidence, the deliberate nature of the shooting, the planning, the shot after shot, target after target. But let's go back to the testimony. So while many of these witnesses' testimony was similar, it was also different, right? Everyone had a unique experience that day. And in fact, I want to highlight one. Parkland survivor Christopher McKenna.

He actually had an interaction with Nicholas Cruz right before the shooting. I walked into a man. He was wearing a maroon shirt with a J.O.T. She shirt with a backpack and a hat on black pants. He had a rifle in his hands. I walked. I was, I was stunned. That's one second. And he said to me, get out of here. Things are about to get bad.

and I walked through the double doors. I sprint as fast as I can. No idea why Nicholas Cruz said this to him. None. He didn't seem to warn anyone else. So it's just so eerie. Now, the scary part is, is I could probably fill a two-hour show worth of statements and evidence

about the shooting itself. And each account is just as terrifying and heartbreaking as the next. But I do want to get into a little bit more of the evidence of what Cruz did after the shooting. because evidence was presented that he tried to escape. Picture this for a moment. Cruise engages in mass homicide and then proceeds to walk to a Walmart and get a drink from the subway restaurant and then he goes to a McDonald's.

Think about that. And while he's at the McDonald's, he sits down next to John Wilford, another student from Marjorie Snowman Douglas High School. And Wilford had no idea who this guy was. So what happened when he sat down? Um, he just sat down. I didn't think much of it. You know, he was just, I figured he was from school because of what he was wearing. But what was he wearing? Uh, ROTC uniform. Okay. So what happened then? Um, from then I wasn't really, I mean, I saw him sit down. So I just was telling him, you know, like, this is so chaotic. You know, this is crazy. All of these helicopters and swat cars coming, like, what do you think this could be? And, you know, I don't remember him saying much, but he was just head down, wasn't really talking to me. I don't remember much of the conversation, but I was doing most of the talking.

Okay. Did he ask you anything? No, not until I started to leave when my mother called me and told me that she was there. Okay, what did he ask you? He asked me for a ride when I was like starting to leave the McDonald's. to beat my mother on the other side. That's when he started talking to me. Okay. And what did you say?

He asked me for a ride. He was pretty insistent on it. And I said no. I just, I wasn't really thinking much of it. I mean, I was just trying to get home. My sister wasn't answering her phone. I was nervous. I was panicked.

I didn't. I also had a bad gut feeling about it, you know, because I'm a nice person. and I would offer somebody a ride like that, but I just wasn't thinking in the moment. Unbelievable. Now, it didn't work for Nicholas Cruz because he ended up getting arrested while walking down the street. But aside for what he did during the shooting and after the shooting, a lot of the prosecution's case focused on what he did before.

And they really honed in on that this was premeditated, that he chose to do this. Hello? My name is Nick and I'm gonna be a next school shooter of 2018. My goal is at least 20 people with an AR-15 and a couple trace rounds. I think I can do a good time. Location is Stone Douglas in Parkland, Florida. It's gonna be a big event. And when you see me on the news, we'll all know who I am.

You're all going to die. Can't wait. Today is the day. The day that all begins. The day of my massacre shall begin. All the kids in school will fear and hide. From the wrath of my power, they will know who I am. I am nothing. I am no one.

My life is nothing and meaningless. nothing and meaningless. Everything that I hold dear, I let go beyond your half. Every day I see the world ending another day. I live a lone life, living seclusion and solitude. I hate everyone and everything. With the power of my AR, you will all know who I am. I had enough of being told what to do and when to do.

I had enough of being telling me that I'm an idiot and a dummy, these recorded manifestos they provide a look into the shooter's mind his mindset just three days before the shooting keep these in mind when we get to the defense's case but it wasn't just the self-recordings because the jury also got a sense of the shooter's anger and his fascination with death and high-profile shootings by looking at his YouTube comments and his YouTube searches July 17, 2017, at 12507 AM UTC, the comment was, they did pretty good, should have, should have had killed more people. It's more of a two shot to confirm a kill. It's called double tap.

If they would have done that, it would have been more like a 36 kill count, like what happened in McDonald's, but pretty good in all with the weapons they had to. July 31st, 2017 at 523.05 a.m. UTC. I'm going to kill people, 20, 20 people. On February 13th, 2018, 9.56 and 36 seconds at night. A YouTube search was conducted good songs to play while killing people. It's scary. It's really scary. It's really scary because you think you listen to this and then you think about what he ended up doing. And it just shows, you the amount of time that he spent in researching and studying and preparing for the shooting. It's not like someone who just snaps. No, this was built over time. And you just look at the evidence. He buys the gun a year before. He takes an Uber to the school and then lies to the Uber driver

saying that he's going to music class. Again, everything I've shown you so far is just a sampling of what the jury saw from the prosecution's case to prove the aggravating factors that the killings were heinous and cold and premeditated and calculated, all to support the death penalty. Not to mention, I should tell you, that the jury also went on a visit to the actual crime scene, a crime scene that was preserved in time, blood stains, all of the materials in a classroom. This happened on Valentine's Day. There were Valentine's Day memorabilia all over. It was frozen in time.

And the reports indicated, since there were no cameras allowed during that, that that was an extremely emotional and tough day for the jurors. And is there something that you'd like to tell the jury about your dad? Yeah. What is that? It's okay. I'll tell him. I missed him.

The penalty phase trial for the confessed Parkland school shooter was not an easy one for this jury. Not only did they, were they exposed. to the graphic details of the massacre itself, but they also learned about the disturbing actions of the shooter before, during, and after the shooting as well. And while the prosecution presented evidence of aggravating factors in support of the death penalty, the defense did the complete opposite. That was their opportunity to present mitigating evidence. And their main theme was that Nicholas Cruz was damaged, that he never had a chance in life. And given this, how much could he really control his behavior?

And this is due partly to the fact that Cruz's biological mother was abusing substances while pregnant with Nicholas. Ms. Woodard, did you see your mother drinking Cisco while she was pregnant? Yeah. Did you see her smoking crap while she was pregnant? Yes. Did you see her smoking cigarettes while she was pregnant? Yes. I have never, ever in my life, seen an individual who has been affected.

by prenatal exposure to alcohol in which there is documentation, and I think pretty darn good documentation of alcohol exposure. I don't think I have ever seen. I know I have never seen so much alcohol consumed by a pregnant woman. And circumstances like this, their defense says, leads to the mental impairment of Nicholas Cruz. The relevant diagnosis in this case is alcohol-related neurodevelopmental disorder. So in the case of Nicholas Cruz, to be specific, he does not have a full-scale IQ of less than 1.5 standard deviations below the mean. His IQ is 83. But he does have two or more of these cognitive impairments in neurodevelopment, in the neurodevelopment, in the neurodevelopmental domains. He has problems with executive functioning. He has problems with memory and he has problems

with visual spatial processing speed. So he does fulfill the criteria, the cognitive criteria without any question for alcohol-related neurodevelopmental disorder. Now, we should be clear here that this evidence presented by the defense, and they made this point too, is not to excuse Cruz's conduct. But what it's aimed to do is to give the jurors a fuller understanding of why he did what he did, a fuller understanding of any mental limitations he may have had, and also humanize him in a way, even showing how his adoptive mother died shortly before the shooting, a mother who the defense seemed to suggest wasn't properly equipped to help Nicholas. Communicated that she was reluctant to discipline the boys.

She was somewhat fearful of them. And as I mentioned before, she was overwhelmed. She. She appeared to not, she appeared to lack the basic, some of the basic foundations of positive parenting. And I do have to point out one of the things, something that occurred during the defense's case. I'd be remiss if I didn't highlight this. at one point, they called Cruz's neighbor Paul Gold. And under cross-examination, the state played an audio recording of Paul Gold, speaking

with Nicholas Cruz in jail. And they wanted to highlight the idea that Paul Gold might be exploiting the situation. Take a listen. My one buddy who works with me, his name is Lee Allison. He's a famous producer and actually made a couple of movies with Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio. So he's very famous. Yeah, he comes over the house all the time.

I was the best man at his wedding, for God's sake. Wow. Yeah. So he does movies all the time, and he's putting me in as an extra. So I'm kind of excited about that. Wow. He mentioned it. He's like, you should make a movie about Dick and he's like, oh, I don't know about that.

I go. But it is a good message about community. he's not caring about people. Yeah. I don't know if I would want that to know. Yeah. I got to tell you, I always thought it was interesting

how Cruz said he wouldn't want that movie to be made. I mean, you've given that, considering what we played earlier in the show, where there was this video manifesto that he made before the shooting proclaiming how everyone would know his name and seeming to enjoy that.

This seems like the complete opposite. Just an interesting perspective. Anyway, the prosecution fought back against the defense's case in their rebuttal case. And what they tried to show is no, say is no, Nicholas Cruz is evil. He fakes or exaggerates mental health symptoms. And if anything, he has borderline personality disorder. He chose to do what he did. And one of the ways they showed this was by presenting an interview with Nicholas Cruz from just a few months before trial with an interview with forensic psychiatrist Dr. Charles Scott. And here's an example when Cruz

talks about torturing animals. When was the very first time you can remember ever doing something that people might look at and say that's not very funny to an animal? How are you in the way? Frookal lizards back with a rock. And how old were you? Three.

Okay. And how can you do? What do you remember about doing that? Something me and my brother did. We went around killing the lizards. Okay. Sometimes they're getting alive. Sometimes they set them up fire. Okay, the lizards?

When did you start scanning a lizard to lie? I just tip him to the little table, and I took a knife, and I just straight to... How were we the first time you did that, do you think? Four. Okay. And then what about setting them on fire? How would you do that? Take a lighter and burn inside.

How would they react? Burn an instrument. As you can see, a lot for the jury to consider here. aggravating factors versus mitigating factors. And under the law, a unanimous jury verdict is required for the death penalty. If there's even just one holdout, that is life in prison. So when all was said and done and all the evidence was presented and all the arguments were made, the jury went back to deliberate.

And after many hours, the jury came back with their decision. We the jury unanimously find that the aggravating factors that were proven beyond a reasonable doubt, outweigh the mitigating circumstances established. No. And that was the decision for each of the 17 charges of first-degree murder, life in prison, not the death penalty. You had a packed courtroom and the look of disappointment and sadness and frustration on the faces of the victim's family members was just so clear and so palpable, but they would have an opportunity to say how they really felt in Cruz's official sentencing hearing where statements from victims and victims family members were allowed to be read to the court.

And let me tell you, they didn't hold anything back. When you die, it is my fondest hope that they take you and put and burn you and take your ashes and thrown in the garbage dump. Yeah, many of the victim's family members would talk about street justice in prison. I will go for knowing that you are going to a maximum security prison with other murderers much tougher than you are a prison where you will spend the rest of your miserable life having to look over your shoulder worried about every single minute of your day of your life and scared out of your mind fearful for someone to take you out a prison where you will be other inmates boy toy.

A prison where your fellow prison inmates are just waiting to tear you apart because from what I hear, child killers are highly frowned upon and hated in prison. You will look back at the time that you spent in the Broward County Jail and see it as it was a hotel compared to the prison, where you are headed. As far as I'm concerned, real justice would be done if every family here were given a bullet and your AR-15.

And we got to pick straws. And each one of us got to shoot one at a time at you, making sure that you felt every bit of it And your fear continued to mount until the last family member who pulled that last straw had the privilege of making sure that they killed you. That's real justice for you. But these statements weren't only directed at the defendant. They were also directed at the defense team.

Several family members of the victims took issue with the way these lawyers handled the case and their conversations with the defendant. and tell you what, they didn't shy away from how they really felt. You obviously have a very high tolerance for murder. God knows what you're showing your kids on television. You obviously have no conscience. If you don't think that this is the worst of the worst, how could you sit there listening to what he did

and say this is not the worst of the worst? He hunted down innocent children and staff terrified, then tortured them, blew their heads apart like a water balloon, and enjoyed it. That doesn't make it on your worst of the worst murderers list? You make me sick. I'm also going to highlight somebody else here, Manuel Oliver, the father of 17-year-old victim, Joaquin Oliver. He actually flipped off the defense during his statement because he was criticizing them for allegedly flipping off the court camera during a or before a pretrial hearing.

Take a listen. Hiding your actions. The middle finger lady. Apologizing for a middle finger. You need to learn how to do a middle finger. so you don't need to apologize to anyone now traditionally i should tell you that victim impact statements are usually directed towards the defendant not so much the lawyers there is another argument to this that maybe under the law these people have a lot of leeway to say what they want to say and cruz's

defense attorneys took issue with the comments that were being made and implored the judge to step in arguing that their children were being brought into this and as you're going to see when this was brought up to judge elizabeth sure it developed into pure chaos. Judge, I have no problem because I have big skin. But once you bring in my children, I think that's highly improper. I didn't even know you have children. I don't know what you're talking about.

Your children, what about your children? But then the comment on my children is highly improper. Before this court to allow that kind of testing. Okay. There was, I don't remember any comments about any children. And if there was, it obviously didn't, it came and went without me noticing it. I can assure you that if they were talking about your children. we're talking about your children, you would definitely notice.

You need to sit down right now. You're out of line. In fact, you're excused. You need to go sit in the back with your chief public defender. He's the public defender. Mr. Weeks, please ask the lawyer from your office to go sit down and not to say anything else. To try to threaten my children and bring up my children, is inappropriate.

Go to the back of the room now. That just violated about every rule of professional responsibility that I have ever, I have never. If you're going to get up here and you're going to... Judge, I ask you to go sidebar on this matter. You, sidebar or not,

you don't have one of your assistant public defenders say something about my children? Judge, that same venom that the court is expressing is the same venom that the defendant. defense counsel had to sit through this entire morning. She brought up her children multiple times during the trial. Nobody knows if I'm barren or not.

They don't know about my children. Sit down. Wow. A lot of questions have come out about this. Did the attorney act improperly? Did the judge fail to show judicial temperament? In the end, though, this sentencing phase ultimately continued. And the judge had some parting words before she officially handed out the sentence.

And that's how I will always think of MSD, just as a great school that will survive, like you all have. So many of you thanked me. I want to thank you because you were. You were ordered so that we could have a fair and and clean trial you were ordered not to to have emotional reactions to to show restraint that I don't believe I think I would be like Mr. Oliver and I would have to be in my office because I don't believe I would be able to show the restraint that you all showed and I thank you for that and from there the judge officially sentenced Nicholas Cruz to 34 consecutive sentences of life in prison without the possibility of parole. What an end to one of the worst mass shootings in American history.

And thanks, everybody, for joining us here on Sidebar. Please subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Jesse Weber. I'll speak to you next time. You can binge all episodes of this long crime series ad free right now on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.