Prosecutors rest their case in Parkland trial after last of victims’ families share stories of loved ones

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

The halls of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School’s 1200 building had long been empty. But the doors opened Thursday morning, and the jurors who will decide the gunman’s fate walked in.

Once back in the courtroom, they heard from three families whose loved ones never got to leave the school alive. And then, suddenly, prosecutors rested their case in the trial that will determine whether gunman Nikolas Cruz will be sentenced to life or death.

It was the final day of the victim’s families struggling through words they prepared about their loved ones, tissue boxes strategically placed throughout the courtroom.

Tattooing her skin each Valentine’s Day, one mother said, is how she now keeps her son close. A son remembered preparing his father’s military uniform, once worn by a man full of life, for his burial. Jurors heard about a teenager who went to an event to honor victims of a mass shooting, only two years before her name would be among those killed in another mass shooting, in another city.

Anne Ramsay, Helena Ramsay’s mother, began crying even before starting to read the statement she and her husband, Vinnie, had prepared about their daughter.

“She grew into a beautiful, tall, graceful young woman,” she said.

Helena, 17, was interested in humanitarian and environmental issues. After the mass shooting at the Pulse nightclub in March 2016, Helena traveled to Orlando with a close friend to attend a benefit concert to support victims.

And their daughter would have been delighted to see the first Black U.S. vice president, “a person who looks just like her,” take office, Anne Ramsay said.

Valentine’s Day and her father’s birthday being the same day used to be a cause for celebration. Then in 2018, it became the date Helena was murdered.

“That day will never be a celebration and can never be the same for him, and now is filled with pain, as is every day,” Anne Ramsay said. “We both miss our brave, beautiful and one-of-a-kind, selfless daughter.”

Peter Wang, a 15-year-old freshman and JROTC member, died after he was shot while holding a door open to let his peers out first.

As Peter’s photograph was brought over to the witness stand, his mother, Hui Wang, started to quietly sob, hiding her face behind the photograph of her boy.

“I have four tattoos of Peter on my body. I get one every year on Feb. 14, to symbolize that he is with me,” Lin Chen, Peter Wang’s cousin, read for Hui Wang.

“Only 15 years old, his back was not shy to take on the weight to do more to bring happiness to others,” Wang’s statement read. “We miss you every day. We miss the light you bring into our lives.”

Hui Wang sat sobbing next to her niece as her statement was read to the jurors. The Chinese new year, the most important holiday, is now the death anniversary of Peter Wang.

“This day of unity became a day that hurts the most,” Chen read.

Aaron Chen, Peter Wang’s cousin, talked about learning of Wang’s death.

“I remember the day Peter was killed. I didn’t want to accept reality,” Chen said.

Debbi Hixon, Chris Hixon’s wife, and their sons Corey and Thomas Hixon spoke toward the end of the day.

Debbi Hixon choked up when identifying her husband as the athletic director and security monitor at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Feb. 14, 2018. She inhaled deeply before beginning.

Her husband, 49, was not only a central part of their family but the type of person who knew Stoneman Douglas students and student athletes personally, she said. He’d walk the halls, talking to them about their lives at school and at home.

“He understood that sports were important in the students’ lives, and he used it as a way to teach them life lessons,” Debbi Hixon said.

Her husband was their special-needs son’s “best buddy,” a veteran U.S. Navy sailor who served overseas during Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm, a former military police officer, and a coach to whichever sports team needed him, Debbi Hixon said.

“We miss his smile, we miss his crabbiness, we miss his compassion ... Nothing is the same now — music, parties, food, TV shows. I just can’t seem to enjoy anything the way that I used to. The house that we shared doesn’t feel like the home that we built because home meant Chris,” she said.

She said they weren’t done making memories, their time together ripped away too soon.

“His loss has left us broken,” she said.

Thomas Hixon, a veteran U.S. Marine officer, took after him, inspired by his father’s 27 years of service in the Navy and then his service in the community.

The last time his father wore his military uniform was in 2014, when Thomas Hixon was commissioned. And it was what Chris Hixon was wearing when he was laid to rest.

“The burden and honor of prepping his uniform for his funeral fell to me, taking hours to get it ready, as it was never good enough for me, ” Thomas Hixon said. “The creases not sharp enough, the awards not placed perfectly enough, the neckerchief never square enough, and the shoes not shined enough.”

“A part of me knew that this was my way of saying goodbye, and I wasn’t ready to do that,” he said.

Cruz, who has mostly averted his eyes from the victims’ families and friends, watched Corey Hixon walk into the courtroom and take his seat at the witness stand next to his mother. One juror wiped her eyes as he began to speak.

“I miss him,” he cried, turning to embrace his mother.

Cruz picked his head up again and watched Corey Hixon walk out of the courtroom.

Lisa J. Huriash can be reached at lhuriash@sunsentinel.com or 954-572-2008. Follow on Twitter @LisaHuriash