FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Parkland school gunman Nikolas Cruz pleaded guilty Friday to charges stemming from his November 2018 assault on a Broward deputy who was guarding him at the Broward main jail.
“Guilty,” he said in response to all four charges.
Sgt. Ray Beltran, the victim of the jailhouse fight, was in court for the proceeding.
Cruz, 23, faced a minimums of 14 months and a likely maximum of 15 years in prison in the case.
The plea came shortly after his lawyers asked Broward Judge Elizabeth Scherer to set a hearing so he can plead guilty to all charges stemming from the February 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, during which he killed 17 students and staff and physically injured 17 more.
Present in the courtroom were the parents of Stoneman Douglas victim Nicholas Dworet, one of 17 killed in the shooting. No other victim’s family members attended Friday’s hearing in person.
Scherer said she would not wait until next week to take a plea in the jailhouse beating case because more than 100 jurors were scheduled to come in on Monday to complete jury selection in that case.
Assistant Public Defender David Wheeler, whose illness delayed the assault case last week, appeared in court to make the change of plea announcement. He told Scherer he will ask her to sentence Cruz in the 17 attempted murder cases, though Scherer said she will likely wait until the end of the case to imposevthat sentence. Cruz will still face a jury to decide whether he will be sentenced to life in prison or death for the 17 murders.
The change of plea hearing in the school shooting will take place at 9 a.m. Wednesday.
Cruz’s intention to plead guilty closes a significant chapter in the Stoneman Douglas ordeal. Jurors and family members will be spared the spectacle of a trial and the presentation of evidence to secure a guilty verdict against someone whose guilt was never in serious question.
Jury selection in the jailhouse assault case provided a preview of what lawyers could expect in a murder trial — a host of potential jurors who openly admitted they could not be fair, and a handful who could not bear the anguish of even being in the same room as the defendant.
Scherer planned to start jury selection in the mass shooting case for November.
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