Nikolas Cruz sentencing trial updates: Prosecution rests its case against Parkland gunman

FORT LAUDERDALE — Jurors returned to a Fort Lauderdale courtroom Thursday for what's expected to be the final stretch in the sentencing trial of Nikolas Cruz, the Parkland school gunman.

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

A 12-person jury will recommend whether Cruz, then 19 and now 24, 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.

Cruz's team of public defenders rested its case on Sept. 14, setting the stage for prosecutors' rebuttal and closing arguments over the coming weeks.

The Palm Beach Post is covering the daily proceedings live. Follow the entries below for updates throughout Thursday, Oct. 6.

Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooter Nikolas Cruz rubs his eyes during the penalty phase of Cruz’s trial at the Broward County Courthouse in Fort Lauderdale on Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2022. Cruz previously plead guilty to all 17 counts of premeditated murder and 17 counts of attempted murder in the 2018 shootings. (Amy Beth Bennett/South Florida Sun Sentinel via AP, Pool)

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The state rests its case, closing arguments to begin next week

Prosecutors rested their case against Cruz onThursday afternoon after four days of rebuttal testimony.

Attorneys will present their closing arguments Tuesday, with jury deliberation expected to begin Wednesday, said Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer.

If the jury needs more than one day to reach a verdict, Scherer said the Broward County Sheriff's Office will load them into vans Wednesday evening and drive them to an undisclosed hotel "to uphold the sanctity" of the deliberations.

"It's a very top-secret process," the judge said.

She told jurors to expect to deliberate through Friday

Judge Elizabeth Scherer is shown in court during the penalty phase of the trial of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooter Nikolas Cruz at the Broward County Courthouse in Fort Lauderdale on Monday, Sept. 12, 2022. Cruz previously plead guilty to all 17 counts of premeditated murder and 17 counts of attempted murder in the 2018 shootings.
Judge Elizabeth Scherer is shown in court during the penalty phase of the trial of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooter Nikolas Cruz at the Broward County Courthouse in Fort Lauderdale on Monday, Sept. 12, 2022. Cruz previously plead guilty to all 17 counts of premeditated murder and 17 counts of attempted murder in the 2018 shootings.

Nikolas Cruz's defense team questions credibility of expert witness

Two federal courts found clinical neuropsychologist Robert Denney, hired by the prosecution at $400 an hour, lacking in credibility for not complying with clinical standards set forth by the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, Cruz attorney Casey Secor revealed during cross-examination Thursday.

The association advises against considering information about a defendant while they're in custody, "even though that may provide significant insight into a person's intellectual ability," Denney said.

"I find that quite illogical," he added.

While much of Denney's testimony was spent refuting whether Cruz has fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, he conceded to Secor that he isn't an expert on the matter.

"You haven't written any articles on fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, right? Or contributed to any articles on that topic?" the attorney pressed.

No, Denney said. Nor had he participated in research, training or continuing education specific to the disorder.

"I know quite a bit about it, but I don't hang out a shingle saying that I'm an FASD specialist," Denney said.

Patricia Padauy Oliver, left, and Andrea Ghersi are shown in the courtroom gallery during the penalty phase of the trial of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooter Nikolas Cruz at the Broward County Courthouse in Fort Lauderdale on Thursday, Oct. 6, 2022. Padauy Oliver’s son and Ghersi’s brother, Joaquin Oliver, was killed in the 2018 shootings. Cruz previously plead guilty to all 17 counts of premeditated murder and 17 counts of attempted murder in the 2018 shootings. (Amy Beth Bennett/South Florida Sun Sentinel via AP, Pool)

Parkland gunman's defense digs up Cruz's childhood trauma

While cross-examining Denney, Cruz's attorneys drew jurors' attention to the gunman's claims that he was sexually abused as a child.

Cruz told Denney that when he was 9 years old, a family friend's son had him perform sex acts in order for Cruz to play his Xbox.

"He told you that, one time, this boy took him into the bathroom of the house and asked if wanted to try something new, right?" Secor asked.

Denney nodded. Secor said Cruz told him the boy put on a condom and assaulted him.

Cruz made the allegation during an assessment Denney administered to measure the gunman's experience with trauma. The doctor testified Tuesday that Cruz's self-reporting of trauma symptoms was "grossly exaggerated," but Secor pushed back.

He reminded jurors that at 5 years old, Cruz watched his adoptive father die. At 19, he watched his adoptive mother die, too, in a hospital. He eventually met his biological mother on a video call from jail, Secor said, and she died shortly after that.

Couldn't any one of those be considered a major trauma in someone's life? the attorney asked.

"Sure," Denney said. "It could be."

Capital defense attorney Casey Secor questions clinical neuropsychologist Dr. Robert L. Denney during the penalty phase of the trial of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooter Nikolas Cruz at the Broward County Courthouse in Fort Lauderdale on Thursday, Oct. 6, 2022. Cruz previously plead guilty to all 17 counts of premeditated murder and 17 counts of attempted murder in the 2018 shootings. (Amy Beth Bennett/South Florida Sun Sentinel via AP, Pool)

Cruz liked to torture animals, 'play with their dead bodies'

Denney returned to the witness stand Thursday for his third day of testimony.

"As we moved to your conclusions, I'm sure I heard a collective sigh of relief here," said assistant state attorney Jeff Marcus.

The bulk of Denney's dayslong testimony was spent challenging the defense team's notion that Cruz was rendered "irretrievably broken" by fetal alcohol spectrum disorder.

"First of all, Mr. Cruz does not have a neurocognitive or neuropsychological disorder," Denney said Thursday. "His scores fall in the way they should for somebody who's got a low average IQ, and I do not believe he meets any of the criteria for fetal alcohol spectrum disorder."

Prosecutors hired Denney to spend about 400 hours assessing Cruz and his past. He said he believes Cruz is "malingering," or faking symptoms of more severe impairments, echoing the testimony of another expert witness this week.

Clinical neuropsychologist Dr. Robert L Denney describes the motor skills that would be necessary to sight a weapon while moving (as Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooter Nikolas Cruz would have done in a video shown to jurors) during the penalty phase of Cruz’s trial at the Broward County Courthouse in Fort Lauderdale on Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2022. Cruz previously plead guilty to all 17 counts of premeditated murder and 17 counts of attempted murder in the 2018 shootings. (Amy Beth Bennett/South Florida Sun Sentinel via AP, Pool)

Denney said Cruz exhibited a callous lack of empathy and remorse as a child, which is indicative of conduct disorder, but that he's since grown out of that diagnosis.

"It's evolved into another diagnosis as an adult," Denney said. "And that's antisocial personality disorder. The characteristics are still there. It's just evolved."

Characteristics of the disorder include aggression to people and animals. Prosecutors played a clip from Denney's interview with Cruz in which he recounted moments of cruelty to animals.

"Let's see," the Parkland gunman began. "I burn, I tortured them. I skinned them alive. I shot them. I usually play with their dead bodies, or I eat them."

Manipulation is core to the disorder as well, Denney said, and he sees it in the relationship Cruz has with the mother of a Sandy Hook victim.

Scarlett Lewis, whose 6-year-old son was shot to death inside Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012, has visited Cruz and spoken to him on the phone throughout his incarceration.

They end each call by saying, "I love you," testified Dr. Charles Scott on Monday. Denney read aloud notes written by Cruz while in jail: "I just hope there's another mass shooting."

The sentiment is in "striking contrast" to the way he must present to somebody like Lewis, Denney said.

He ended his testimony with a quick series of assertions. Fetal alcohol syndrome does not explain Cruz's detailed planning of the massacre, he said. Nor does it explain his animal abuse, racism, misogyny, fascination with swastikas, interest in child pornography or murder and attempted murder of the students at Stoneman Douglas.

Hannah Phillips is a journalist covering public safety and criminal justice at The Palm Beach Post. You can reach her at hphillips@pbpost.com.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Parkland shooter trial: Prosecutors rest case against Nikolas Cruz