Key revelations from Parkland shooter Nikolas Cruz’s sentencing trial

Parkland shooter Nikolas Cruz was sentenced to life in prison by a jury after months of chilling testimony and just one day of deliberation. On Valentine’s Day 2018, Cruz traveled to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School armed with an AR-15-style rifle.There, the then-19-year-old stalked all three floors of the freshman building, shooting and killing 17 students and staff members.Cruz, now 23, pleaded guilty in October 2021 to 17 counts of murder and 17 counts of attempted murder.The jury was tasked with deciding whether to hand him the death penalty or to sentence him to life in prison without the possibility of parole.On 13 October, jurors alerted the court that they had reached a verdict, recommending life in prison for the killer. Prosecutors spent three weeks presenting graphic details of how Cruz plotted and carried out the attack, footage of him calmly going to a nearby Subway and McDonald’s in the immediate aftermath and heartbreaking testimony from the victims’ families.The defence then spent 11 days presenting its case, seeking to show that Cruz suffered from behavioural and developmental issues and endured a troubled upbringing – and did not receive the appropriate help he needed.Here are key revelations from the lengthy trial: At the start of the sentencing trial, graphic surveillance footage was played in court of Cruz carrying out his murderous rampage.The video, taken from security cameras inside Marjory Stoneman Douglas on Valentine’s Day 2018, showed Cruz stalking the corridors of the three-storey freshman building, shooting students and staff members.Prosecutors said it showed Cruz shooting some victims multiple times at point-blank range and returning to wounded victims to kill them with a second hail of bullets.Jurors were seen putting their hands to their faces as they watched the 15-minute recording, which has no sound. The gallery – where the victims’ families sat – were not able to see it.Nikolas Cruz pictured in court on 12 September Horrifying cellphone footage captured by a terrified student was also shown in court.In it, shots were heard ringing out and a voice was heard saying: ‘Someone help me.’Several survivors of the shooting took the stand to relive their harrowing experiences that day, with one student recounting how Cruz warned him ‘things were about to get bad’ moments before the massacre began.Christopher McKenna, a freshman student at the time, testified that he bumped into Cruz in the stairwell of the freshman building on his way to the restroom. Cruz was holding his semi-automatic rifle.’He said get out of here. Things are about to get bad,’ Mr McKenna recalled.Mr McKenna ran out of the building and told school football coach Aaron Feis what had happened.Mr Feis took Mr McKenna away from the scene and ran towards the building in the direction of the shooting, where he became one of Cruz’s first victims.The court also heard from students William Olson, Alex Dworet and Kheshava Manhapuram – who were all sat in the same English class that Mr McKenna had left when Cruz shot through the walls and door. They were all shot but survived.In traumatic testimony, the survivors recounted seeing their friend Alex Schacter slumped over his desk after being fatally struck by bullets. Alaina Petty and Alyssa Alhadeff, both 14, also died in the classroom.Former student Christopher McKenna identifies Nikolas Cruz as the man he saw moments before the mass shooting Survivors from another classroom also testified how they were in a Holocaust history lesson when Cruz began shooting through the door.Teacher Ivy Schamis broke down in tears as she told the court how student Nick Dworet correctly answered a question seconds before he was shot dead.’It was really seconds later that the barrel of that AR-15 just ambushed our classroom. It came right through that glass panel and was just shooting everywhere. It was very loud. Very frightening. I kept thinking about these kids who should not be experiencing this at all,’ she testified.Three students were wounded in her class and two were killed: Dworet and Helena Ramsay, both 17.Chilling surveillance footage played in court captured how Cruz calmly carried on with his day moments after murdering 17 students and staff members.Following the massacre, Cruz fled the school grounds by hiding in plain sight among the terrified students.He then casually walked to a nearby Subway for a drink where he was captured on surveillance footage strolling up to the counter to buy a cherry and blue ice drink – just 25 minutes after he stopped shooting.He then went to a nearby McDonald’s, where – unbeknown to both at the time – he sat directly opposite and chatted to the brother of one of the students he had just shot.In surveillance footage from the McDonald’s, student John Wilford is seen entering the restaurant and sitting in a booth on his own. Minutes later, Cruz calmly strolls inside and sits in the same booth directly opposite Mr Wilford – despite there being several empty booths around them.Surveillance video shown in court of Nikolas Cruz in McDonald’s soon after the shooting After a few moments, the two appear to exchange words.Mr Wilford, who was in ninth grade at the time, testified that he had evacuated the school and arranged to meet his mother at the McDonald’s. They hadn’t been able to get in contact with his sister Madeleine Wilford.He was waiting for his mother, when Cruz came and sat with him. He said he assumed Cruz was also a student at the school because he was wearing a Douglas JROTC shirt and had no idea that Cruz was responsible for the attack.He said he started speaking to Cruz about what had happened but Cruz ‘didn’t really say much’ and just sat with his ‘head down’.When Mr Wilford went to leave, he said Cruz asked him for a ride but he told him no, because he was worried about his sister.At the time, Madeleine was in grave condition after Cruz had shot her four times. She survived the attack.Cruz was arrested around one hour after the massacre, when he was spotted by a police officer walking along a nearby road. Surveillance video shown in court of Nikolas Cruz in Subway buying a drink minutes after the shootingThe AR-15-style rifle used by Cruz to murder 17 students and staff members was brought into the courtroom and shown to the jury.Cruz fired more than 100 bullets in just seven minutes as he stalked the three floors of the freshman building, jurors heard.He then left the black Smith & Wesson M&P 15 semi-automatic rifle on top of his tactical vest on the landing of the third-floor stairwell and fled the school.Five gun magazines containing 160 bullets were left inside the vest.Cruz also had a police ID card his late adoptive father Roger Cruz had been issued by a New York department.Jurors also heard testimony from Michael Morrison, the owner of Sunrise Tactical Supply in Coral Springs, who sold Cruz the gun in February 2017 – one year before the massacre.When the store owner asked Cruz what he was going to do with it, he said Cruz told him he planned to ‘go shooting with my friends during the weekend’.He testified that he saw no red flags in his interactions with the then-18-year-old and Cruz’s firearms application was approved by Florida. In the aftermath of the massacre, the state raised the minimum age to legally purchase firearms from 18 to 21.Michael Morrison, the former owner of Sunrise Tactical Supply, is shown the gun used by Nikolas Cruz in the attack Jurors were shown graphic crime scene and autopsy photos of Cruz’s victims.Broward County Chief Medical Examiner Rebecca MacDougall, who performed autopsies on several of the victims, told jurors in distressing detail about the gunshot wounds sustained by Alex Schachter. The 14-year-old was one of the first to be killed in the massacre when Cruz shot through the window of his first-floor classroom, striking him with bullets while he was still sat at his desk.One of the bullets entered Alex’s left chest, went through his lung and struck his spinal cord. He would have been left paralysed had he survived, she said.The graphic testimony was difficult for victims’ family members sat in the gallery, with Alex’s grieving father seen covering his face and sobbing as he heard how his son died.Dr Iouri Boiko, who carried out some of the other autopsies, detailed the horrific wounds suffered by Meadow Pollack, as she was shot seven times by Cruz while trying to hide in the alcove of a classroom on the third floor with Cara Loughran.As well as the autopsy photos, jurors also heard harrowing testimony from law enforcement officers who found the bodies of students and staff on the scene that day and were also shown graphic crime scene photos taken by crime scene investigators with the Broward County Sheriff’s Office.Sgt. Gloria Crespo took photos of the bodies of the five students and one teacher killed on the third floor, as Cruz gunned them down in the corridor at close range.The gunman made three chilling cellphone videos in the days leading up to 14 February 2018, where he spoke of his plans to carry out the massacre and kill at least 20 people at his former school.In the first, filmed six days before the attack, he says: ‘Today is the day. Today it all begins. The day of my massacre shall begin.’In the second, he is heard saying: ‘When you see me on the news, you’ll all know who I am. You’re all going to die. … Can’t wait.’The final video, which was filmed three days before the massacre, shows Cruz speaking directly into the camera, saying that he is ‘going to be the next school shooter of 201’ and making gunshot sounds.In the 90 minutes before the shooting began, Cruz was also texting his ex-girlfriend, jurors heard.People at a vigil for the victims of the massacre on 15 February 2018 He told her he loved her and asked if she wanted him to ‘go away’, to which she replied: ‘You’re scaring me and I want you to leave me alone.’ He told her he loved her one more time before entering the school.Text messages between the mass shooter and a friend were also shown in court. Cruz was messaging the friend during the day on 14 February 2018 asking them to find him a date with a girl for that night.Just as Cruz’s Uber was pulling up at Marjory Stoneman for him to carry out the massacre, the friend texted him to say he had found him a date.Cruz replied: ‘Too late man.’ Three minutes later, he began opening fire on victims.On the way to the school he also geared himself up for the shooting by listening to ‘Pumped Up Kicks’ – a song about a school shooting – the court heard.Family members of Cruz’s victims took the stand to give gut-wrenching victim impact statements as the prosecution rested its case.In one heartbreaking moment, the son of Chris Hixon – the school’s athletic director and wrestling coach who died trying to save students – appeared alongside his mother to tell the jury about his father.’I miss him,’ Corey, who has special needs, said through tears before hugging his mother Debbi.’Every Saturday we ran to Dunkin’ Donuts and walked back.’The father of one of the other victims shouted with anger and grief as he took the stand to speak about life without his 14-year-old daughter Alyssa Alhadeff.Dr Ilan Alhadeff told jurors about her ‘infectious laugh that I can only get to watch now on TikTok videos’.’My first-born daughter, daddy’s girl was taken from me!’ he shouted.’I get to watch my friends, my neighbors, colleagues spend time enjoying their daughters, enjoying all the normal milestones, taking in the normal joys and I only get to watch videos or go to the cemetery to see my daughter.’One of Alyssa’s two younger brothers was too young to understand her death when it happened, but now ‘asks to go see his sister at the cemetery from time to time’. ‘This is not normal!’ said Dr Alhadeff.Corey Hixon and his mother Debbi Hixon as they give their victim impact statement At the end of the prosecution’s case, jurors were taken to the high school to tour the site of the massacre.In the aftermath of the Valentine’s Day 2018 shooting, the 1200 freshman building was closed off and preserved exactly as it was that day.The building still had blood on the floors, bullet holes in the walls and doors and Valentine’s Day gifts abandoned in the chaos.The only thing removed from the scene in the wake of the shooting were the victims’ bodies and their personal items, such as school backpacks.Judge Elizabeth Scherer told jurors that the visit would help them analyse the evidence presented in the trial. Local officials plan to tear down the school after the trial.Law enforcement officers block off the entrance to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland on 15 February 2018 The defence began its case by calling witnesses to testify that Cruz’s biological mother Brenda Woodard abused alcohol and drugs while pregnant – as his legal team seeks to argue that he suffers from fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD).Cruz’s biological half-sister Danielle Woodard testified that her brother was born from their mother’s ‘polluted womb’, telling jurors that she saw her mother smoke cigarettes, drink and smoke crack while pregnant with him.The mass killer’s older sister was led into court in handcuffs as she awaits trial over an alleged carjacking of an elderly woman.Woodard shares the same biological mother as Cruz but they did not grow up together as Cruz was adopted as a baby by Lynda and Roger Cruz while Woodard lived on and off with their mother.In opening statements, Cruz’s attorney Melisa McNeill also spoke of his apparent FASD saying that his brain is ‘irretrievably broken’ because his biological mother ‘poisoned him in the womb’.’His brain is broken. He is a damaged human being,’ said Ms McNeill.She detailed how his mother – who put him up for adoption – was homeless, an alcoholic, drug addict and working as a prosititue when she fell pregnant with him. ‘His prenatal vitamins consisted of… Bum wine, crack cocaine and cigarettes,’ she said.An undated photograph of Brenda Woodard, the biological mother of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooter Nikolas Cruz, shown in courtCruz was accused of ‘inappropriately touching’ a young girl years before he carried out the high school massacre, jurors heard.Finai Browd testified that she and Lynda Cruz became best friends when they both lived in New York in the 1980s. The friends then both moved to Florida with their husbands and deliberately lived near each other.Around the same time that Lynda and Roger adopted Nikolas and then his biological half-brother Zachary, Ms Browd and her husband also adopted children.Both of their families were very close and their children would spend a lot of time together, she said.But, at one point, she said there was ‘an incident with Nikolas… inappropriate touching’ of a young