Nikolas Cruz sentencing trial: Speech problems kept Parkland gunman isolated, pathologist says

FORT LAUDERDALE — Testimony in the death penalty phase of the Nikolas Cruz trial resumed Monday in a Fort Lauderdale courtroom.

This week, the defense team for the Parkland school shooting gunman will continue to call witnesses in its effort to win Cruz a life sentence without the possibility of parole.

Last week, the team, made up of Broward County public defenders, called 10 witnesses to the stand as it began presenting its case. They included Cruz's older sister Danielle Woodard, therapists and psychiatrists who worked with Cruz in a professional manner, and friends of his biological and adoptive mothers.

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Cruz pleaded guilty in 2021 to killing 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Feb. 14, 2018, and wounding 17 others. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

The 12-person jury will recommend whether Cruz, then 19 and now 23, is put to death or sentenced to life in prison. If it recommends death, a move that must be unanimous, Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer will make the final ruling, likely sometime this fall.

The Palm Beach Post is covering the daily proceedings live.

Speech and language expert Shameka Stanford: Cruz 'could never really connect with anyone'

When Nikolas Cruz was nearly 11 years old, he spoke at a level between a 6 1/2-year old and an 8 1/2-year-old, according to an expert defense witness who testified for more than an hour Monday afternoon.

Shameka Stanford, a speech and language pathologist who specializes in childhood disorders, reviewed Cruz's case history and interviewed the Parkland school shooter while determining that "there was a severe presence of language impairment, specifically with problem solving … "

The language problems put Cruz in a "bubble" of isolation because "he could never really connect with anyone," Stanford said.

Cruz did not start speaking until he was 2 — older than most children — and alcohol could have impacted his brain development, according to her testimony. Cruz's birth mother used crack cocaine and alcohol during her pregnancy, witnesses have said.

Language issues are still apparent in Cruz, Stanford said. She testified about listening to a jailhouse call where Cruz began making "animal noises." The sounds Cruz made, Stanford said, were a response to the "conversation getting too heavy and deep" and the defendant unable to respond in an appropriate way.

Defense attorneys are using experts like Stanford to build their case that Cruz never had a chance in life and should have his own life spared.

Assistant State Attorney Nicole Chiappone tried to poke holes in Stanford's credibility by calling into question whether she was qualified to administer tests she conducted on Cruz.

Monday's session was expected to end with the jury listening to the last part of a recorded hearing with Finai Browd, a longtime friend of Lynda Cruz.

Browd's testimony was interrupted because Stanford had a plane to catch.

Family friend Finai Browd: 'Kids have tantrums, but not to that extent'

Lynda Cruz desperately wanted a child after enduring four miscarriages, according to a longtime friend who testified Monday.

"She really wanted to be a mom," said Finai Browd, who met Lynda Cruz in Long Island, New York.

That desire came true when Lynda and her husband, Roger, adopted Nikolas. But by the time the boy was 4, Browd said she knew something was wrong.

"He would have tantrums if he didn't get his way," said Browd, whose testimony was videotaped in July and shown to jurors on Monday. "Kids have tantrums, but not to that extent."

Lynda Cruz would bend over backward to appease Nikolas, her friend said. Linda once chose to trade in a BMW SUV she bought three weeks before because Nikolas "didn't like the car," Browd said.

Nikolas was so attached to his mother that she couldn't leave the house without her son screaming and crying while looking out the front window for hours, she said.

Browd also relayed the story of Nikolas Cruz finding his adoptive father dead in the den of their home. Cruz came running down a hallway crying and went into his room.

"Nikolas, what happened? Did Daddy yell at you?" Lynda Cruz asked.

"No, daddy's dead," the boy responded.

One teacher, Lynn Rodriguez, said Nikolas Cruz 'did not blend well'

Lynn Rodriguez, who served as Nikolas Cruz's Exceptional Student Education teacher in the third and fourth grades, remembers the Parkland gunman as "very quiet, aloof. He did not blend well with other students."

Rodriguez was the first witness Monday as Cruz's defense team began its second week presenting its case.

Even though he was smaller than the other students, Rodriguez said Cruz could become aggressive. She remembers him "ripping up other students' work or projects."

Sharing his things made Cruz "upset," she said.

In the fourth grade, Cruz "could be very disruptive" when he became angry.

Academically, she said, Cruz was already far behind. Rodriguez said Cruz scored 1 on a 1-5 scale on the FCAT as a third- and fourth-grader.

Jorge Milian is a journalist covering Boynton Beach and Lake Worth Beach at The Palm Beach Post. You can reach him at jmilian@pbpost.com and follow him on Twitter @Caneswatch. 

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This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Nikolas Cruz trial: Doctor details speech troubles that kept him isolated