CNN –
The gunman who carried out the Parkland school shooting has been formally sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole after a jury last month did not unanimously recommend the death penalty, disappointing and angering many of the families of the 17 people he killed.
Broward Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer imposed the legally mandated sentence on Wednesday, ordering Nikolas Cruz, 24, to serve life in prison without the possibility of parole for each of the 17 counts of murder he had been charged with found guilty, with consecutive sentences.
In addition, Scherer imposed a sentence of life in prison with a minimum of 20 years to serve on 14 of the 17 counts of attempted murder, and life without the possibility of parole on the remaining three counts of attempted murder. All counts must be run consecutively, the judge ruled.
The end of the months-long trial to decide Cruz’s fate came after two days of victim impact testimony in which families of those killed and survivors of the February 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman High School Douglas in South Florida confronted the gunman, explaining to the court what took them and expressing his anger will not be dead.
LIVE UPDATES: Parkland shooter Nikolas Cruz formally sentenced
“It’s heartbreaking how anyone who heard and saw all of this didn’t give this killer the worst possible punishment,” Annika Dworet, the mother of 17-year-old victim Nicholas Dworet, said Wednesday. “As we all know, the worst punishment in the state of Florida is the death penalty. How bad would the crime have to be to warrant the death penalty?”
“You robbed Alyssa of a lifetime of memories,” Lori Alhadeff, the mother of 14-year-old victim Alyssa Alhadeff, told the gunman. “Alyssa will never graduate high school. Alyssa will never go to college, and Alyssa will never play soccer. She will never get married and never have a baby.”
“My hope for you is that you are miserable for the rest of your pathetic life,” added Lori Alhadeff. “My hope for you is that the pain of what you did to my family burns and traumatizes you every day.”
Cruz pleaded guilty last year to 17 counts of murder and 17 counts of attempted murder in connection with the shooting, which, despite America’s continuing epidemic of gun violence, remains the deadliest mass shooting in a high school in the United States.
The state sought the death penalty, and so Cruz’s trial moved to the sentencing phase, in which a jury was tasked with hearing prosecutors and defense attorneys argue why they believed he should be killed or not.
The prosecution argued, in part, that the shooting was particularly heinous, atrocious or cruel and was premeditated and calculated. The defense, which asked for a life sentence, pointed to the shooter’s mental or intellectual deficits, which they say stemmed from prenatal exposure to alcohol.
Three jurors were persuaded to vote for life, sparing Cruz a death sentence, which in Florida a jury must unanimously recommend. Scherer must follow the jury’s recommendation of life without parole, according to state law.
Throughout testimony this week, the gunman remained emotionless, wearing a red prison jumpsuit and glasses. He was also wearing a medical mask, although he took it off Wednesday after Jennifer Guttenberg, the mother of 14-year-old victim Jaime, told him it was disrespectful.
“You shouldn’t be sitting there with a mask on your face. It’s disrespectful to hide your expressions under your mask when we, the families, are sitting here talking to you,” she said during her testimony. “Down in your seat. Crouching down trying to make you look innocent, when you’re not, because you admitted what you did. And everybody knows what you did.”
The gunman then took off his mask, but his facial expression did not change.
Of those killed, 14 were students and three were staff members who died running toward danger or trying to help students to safety.
The students killed were: Alyssa Alhadeff, 14; Martin Duque Anguiano, 14 years old; Nicholas Dworet, 17; Jaime Guttenberg, 14 years; Luke Hoyer, 15; Cara Loughran, 14; Gina Montalto, 14; Joaquin Oliver, 17 years old; Alaina Petty, 14; Abadejo del Prat, 18; Helena Ramsay, 17; Alex Schachter, 14; Carmen Schentrup, 16; and Peter Wang, 15 years old.
Geography teacher Scott Beigel, 35; wrestling coach Chris Hixon, 49; and assistant football coach Aaron Feis, 37, were also killed.
The life sentence fell short of what many of Cruz’s injured and the families of those he killed wanted. Some said in testimony this week that the jury gave more weight to his life than the lives of the 17 dead.
“It’s very, very sad. I miss my boy,” Max Schachter, Alex Schachter’s father, told CNN Wednesday before the sentencing. “It’s not right that the worst high school shooter in the history of the United States basically gets what he wants,” he said, referring to Cruz’s life sentence.
Samantha Fuentes, one of the shooting survivors, confronted Cruz on Wednesday and admitted she was “angry” about his conviction. But unlike him, she said: “I will never take out my anger, my pain and my suffering on others because I am stronger than you. This whole community behind me is stronger than you.”
Fuentes reminded Cruz that they walked the same halls and were even in JROTC together.
“We were still kids then,” he said. “I was still a kid when I saw you standing at the window, looking into my Holocaust studies class, holding your AR-15 that had swastikas, ironically, scratched on it. I was still a kid after I saw you kill two of my friends. I was still a child when you shot me with your gun.”
Another student, Victoria Gonzalez, Joaquín Oliver’s girlfriend, similarly reminded the gunman that they too had shared a class together, recalling how the teacher would go around the classroom every day asking students for an answer to their homework to make sure that each student had done. Every day, he said, he hoped Cruz would have his, for his sake.
“I was quietly supporting you at my desk. You had no idea who I was and I was supporting you,” Gonzalez said. “Because I felt that you needed someone or that you needed something. And I could feel that.”
But Joaquín’s killing has made it difficult for Gonzalez to make friends, get close to others, he said, and allow others to love him the way he did.
“I’d like you to meet Joaquin,” he said. “Because I would have been your friend. I would have reached out to you.”
Michael Schulman, Scott Beigel’s father, told the court of the geography teacher’s altruistic nature and the impact he left on his students and cross-country athletes. The gunman not only robbed a child, but also a teacher, he said.
“You are a spineless, soulless monster. My son Scott was a human being, still is, something you never will be and never were,” Schulman said.
Beigel’s mother, Linda Beigel Schulman, also addressed the court and the shooter, telling him, “I’ve never said your name, and I never will.”
He ended his statement with a picture of the dead victims. “These are the names and faces I want you to remember,” she said, including her son Scott, “whom I will honor, love and cherish every day for the rest of my life.”
Watch the moment judge dismisses a member of the Parkland shooter’s defense team
Some of the victim impact testimony this week was directed not just at Cruz but at the public defenders who represented him.
That led the defense to object, including Broward County Public Defender Gordon Weekes, who on Tuesday asked Scherer to direct the state to encourage witnesses not to make statements to lawyers or attorneys. They were just doing their jobs, as the law gives all criminal defendants the right to legal representation, he said.
That further angered some members of the Parkland family, including Fred Guttenberg, Jaime’s father, who called Wednesday to have Weekes resign.
“I understand you have a job to do, defend the indefensible, defend a mass murderer of 17 people. I understand it was difficult,” he told defense attorneys. “And you were doing your job the way you were supposed to. But I’m not sure that anywhere along the way there was a requirement that you give up your humanity and your decency. That was a choice you made.”
It is still unclear what Cruz’s future will look like. He is likely to be in Broward County custody before being turned over to the Florida Department of Corrections and taken to one of several shelters around the state.
There, Cruz will spend weeks undergoing physical and mental exams, Florida criminal defense attorney Janet Johnson told CNN. “They’re going to look at his record, they’re going to look at the level of offense he’s convicted of, which is obviously the highest, and they’re going to recommend a facility somewhere in the state,” he said.
Which facility is determined by factors including the seriousness of the crime, the length of the sentence and the inmate’s prior criminal record, according to the Florida State Department of Corrections website. Usually, those convicted of the most serious crimes or with the longest sentences are placed in the most secure area…