Parkland killer’s life or death, Day 39: Crime scene tour set, jailhouse assault debate, tearful parent memories

Kathy Laskowski, South Florida Sun-Sentinel
·2 min read
2

Editor’s note: Daily coverage of the Parkland trial is being provided to all readers as a public service.

Here are updates from Day 39 in the sentencing trial of confessed Parkland shooter Nikolas Cruz, 23; a jury will decide if he will be executed or sentenced to life in prison without parole. He pleaded guilty in October to 17 counts of first-degree murder and 17 counts of attempted murder in the Feb. 14, 2018, massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

  • Logistics: A good portion of Wednesday afternoon was spent hashing out details about the jurors’ tour of the massacre site. Jurors will be able to proceed at their own pace, and are allowed to observe but not touch anything. They can visit each of the three floors of the freshman building, but they cannot enter rooms, only those where shootings occurred or where people hid from the gunman. They are not allowed to talk with each other about what they observe, or call attention to any detail to another juror.

  • Crime scene: The 1200 building on the MSD campus has not been used since the shooting, and a new freshman building put in place, but the school district cannot demolish the old building until prosecutors no longer need it. “This is the crime scene that he chose,” prosecutor Jeff Marcus said.

  • Aggravating factor: Prosecutors and defense attorneys traded arguments on whether the jury could hear about the sentence Cruz received for charges of assaulting a jailhouse guard while awaiting trial on the murder and attempted murder charges. Defense attorney Tamara Curtis argued the jury should not be allowed to consider the assault as a prior conviction that can be used as an aggravating factor. “The defense gets no credit that Sgt. [Ray] Beltran was able to repel this attack,” prosecutor Jeff Marcus said. Judge Elizabeth Scherer allowed the assault to be considered as a mitigating factor.

  • Tearful testimonials: More families provided their victim impact statements to the jury. Speaking on Wednesday were: Isabel Dalu, a family friend of Denise and Damian Loughran, the parents of Cara, 14; Jennifer and Tony Montalto, parents of Gina, 14; and Max Schachter and Ryan Schachter, father and brother of Alex, 14;

  • Quote: “It’s an ache that is just constant. I wish every single day this is a nightmare I can wake up from.” — Max Schachter, father of Alex, 14

  • Looking ahead: On Thursday morning, jurors will tour the 1200 building on the high school campus, the freshman building that was the site of the mass shooting. They will return to the Broward County Courthouse in the afternoon for more testimony and victim impact statements.

Go to SunSentinel.com/parkland-shooting for complete coverage of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School tragedy and ongoing coverage of the sentencing trial.

Sun Sentinel staff writers Rafael Olmeda and Lisa J. Huriash contributed to this report.