FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — The families of the victims, as a rule, do not speak the shooter’s name. And when he finally addressed them in person Wednesday, the shooter did not look them in the eye.
Nikolas Cruz, the man who terrorized Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School just minutes before school let out on Valentine’s Day 2018, slouched before Broward Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer, flanked by his defense lawyers, and declared himself guilty, one by one, of 17 counts of murder and guilty of 17 counts of attempted murder.
Then he asked the judge if he could make a statement to the families.
“I am doing this for you,” he mumbled at one point. Some family members glared in his direction. The parents of slain victims Luke Hoyer and Gina Montalto, who died near each other in the first floor hallway, held hands. Others looked down, weary after hearing prosecutor Mike Satz recount the shooting bullet by bullet, victim by victim.
“I am very sorry for what I did and I have to live with it every day,” the gunman said. “I know you don’t believe me ... It brings me nightmares. ... I just want you to know I’m real sorry and I hope you give me a chance to try to help others.”
He railed against marijuana use. He said he felt his fate should be up to the families of the people he killed. But whether Cruz lives or dies will ultimately be decided by a jury, Judge Scherer said. Selection in that case is set to begin Jan. 4, she said.
During a break after the plea, the families of the victims released their tears and embraced each other. A significant chapter in the legal saga was at an end, but it’s an early chapter. There is much more to come.
The guilty pleas came after the judge carefully went over the gunman’s rights under the law.
“The maximum penalty is death,” she warned him, which means “you will not come out until you are no longer alive ... You are facing a minimum best case scenario of life in prison. Do you understand?”
“Yes,” he said. For each of those attempted murder counts, he faces a sentence of 25 years to life in prison.
Victim by victim, the judge read the names of the dead and the wounded. “Guilty,” Cruz replied after each one.
Annika Dworet, mother of slain victim Nicholas Dworet and survivor Alex Dworet, wept, consoled by her husband and others seated nearby. Tony Montalto, father of slain victim Gina Montalto, let out a sigh as her name was called.
“I accept your plea,” the judge said. “I find that you are alert and intelligent.”
In terms of criminal justice, there’s only one question left without an easy answer: Will the state of Florida execute Cruz as punishment for the lives he ended, or will a jury show him the mercy he denied to those who crossed his path that awful day?
Scherer set an Oct. 26 court date to schedule the next step of the death penalty case.
In the separate case, in which Cruz pleaded guilty last week to four counts associated with his assault on a deputy guarding him at the Broward main jail in Nov. 2018, Scherer sentenced him to 26 years in prison.
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