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Parkland school killer Nikolas Cruz has been sentenced to death for the murder of 14 students and 3 teachers in one of the deadliest and most merciless mass slaughters in the nation’s history.
After a wrenching three-month trial, it took the panel of seven women and five men just one day to decide Cruz’s fate.
On Valentine’s Day in 2018, Cruz, a former student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, walked into the three-story building and began firing indiscriminately.
Cruz’s defense attorneys had argued that the killer’s traumatic and dysfunctional childhood served as a mitigating factor in the massacre.
Born to a crack and alcohol-addicted prostitute, Cruz, now 24, was adopted by a Florida couple as an infant.
While his adoptive parents Lynda and Roger Cruz provided a stable environment for the child, his lawyers arguedthe damage had already been done.
The deterioration of Cruz’s brain, they contended, began with his biological mother’s heavy drinking while he was still in the womb. His defense team called several expert witnesses who argued that he likely suffered from fetal alcohol syndrome.
