Assault trial shows challenges for Parkland case
It took one look at the defendant to bring several jurors to uncontrollable tears this week. The moment they recognized the timid-looking young man with the unkempt hair and the thick-framed glasses, the emotions could not be held back.
More than three years after the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland left 17 dead and 17 physically wounded, Nikolas Cruz no longer needs a weapon, or intent, to inflict pain. His presence is enough. For some would-be jurors in an unrelated trial, it was too much.
Jury selection in Cruz’s jailhouse assault case is not done, but already it has shown that the worst expectations of the defense team may be coming to pass. So many people know the name, the face and the deeds of Nikolas Cruz that they cannot serve as jurors — not even in a case that has nothing to do with the
Stoneman Douglas shooting.
Cruz is going on trial for jumping a deputy who was guarding him at the Broward Main Jail in November 2018, nine months after the Stoneman Douglas shooting.
Broward Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer brought 288 potential jurors, 32 at a time, into the courtroom to meet Cruz and be considered for the case Tuesday and Wednesday. Only 106 said they could be fair, and could separate the defendant from the other crime he’s accused of committing. Only a very few said they’d never even heard of Nikolas Cruz.
Pre-trial publicity is always a concern for lawyers in high-profile criminal cases, and there hasn’t been a higher-profile case in recent memory. Cruz’s lawyers have repeatedly warned the such publicity threatens his right to a fair trial in the murder case.
“You want to try to elicit, as much as you can, an honest commitment to listening to the facts and the evidence, not what they think they might know from what they’ve heard or read,” said defense lawyer Johnny McCray, who’s not associated with the case. McCray represented Matthew Bent, another defendant whose case was haunted by years of pre-trial publicity. Accused of attempted murder in the 2009 burning of teenager Michael Brewer, Bent was convicted of a lesser charge of aggravated battery in 2012.
Defense lawyers who grapple with representing demonized defendants say two keys to success are to humanize their clients and counter the effect of media coverage they cannot control.
“They take an oath,” McCray said, and while some jurors may feel pressure from the community and even from their fellow jurors, “I really believe most jurors want to honor that oath.”
The tearful reaction of some jurors had a noticeable impact on Cruz on Wednesday. At times he appeared at or near tears himself. He was sniffling. Defense lawyers gave him colored pencils and “Pokemon” sheets to help soothe him, a tactic that drew the attention and scorn of prosecutor Maria Schneider.
“They are doing (that) so the jury perceives that he is a child, that his mentality is somehow challenged,” Schneider told Scherer. The pencils were taken away.
The defense has not shown any indication that they plan to raise Cruz’s mental health during the jailhouse assault trial, but it is all but certain to be a factor in the mass shooting case, which has not been scheduled.
The jury in the assault case will be drawn from the 106 who passed the first round of selection. They will return to court on Oct. 18. Testimony is scheduled to start the next day for a case not expected to last more than a day or two.
If convicted in the assault case, Cruz faces a likely maximum prison term of 15 years. If convicted in the murders, jurors will then decide whether to sentence him to death.