MSD shooter to face trial for assault
Cruz faces four criminal counts stemming from alleged attack on Broward jail guard in 2018
Prosecutors still want to bring the Parkland school shooter in front of a jury by the end of this month, but not for murder.
Nikolas Cruz, 21, is scheduled to go on trial Jan. 27 on four criminal counts stemming from his alleged attack on a Broward jail guard in November 2018. Cruz is accused of punching Sgt. Ray Beltran, wrestling him to the ground and taking his stun gun.
Broward Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer already agreed last month to hold off on bringing Cruz in front of a jury for the February 2018 massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, during which he killed 17 people and wounded 17 more with an AR-15 style rifle. He faces the death penalty if convicted.
But the assault case remained separate, involving fewer complicated issues compared to a capital case.
Still, Assistant Public Defender Peter Burke, who represents Cruz in the battery case, asked Scherer for more time, citing difficulty gathering video evidence and the reluctance of the victim to go on the record about a recent DUI arrest in Washington State.
Beltran, 42, was arrested early on March 22 in Seattle.
Police in Seattle said Beltran had watery eyes and his vehicle smelled of “intoxicants.” Beltran showed his badge just before turning over his license, according to a police report. His blood alcohol level was 0.15, nearly twice the legal limit, according to King County prosecutors.
Burke said Beltran refused to answer multiple questions during his formal deposition earlier this month. Prosecutor Maria Schneider, who opposed postponing the battery trial, said the defense was stalling by trying to make an issue of an irrelevant incident.
“Their questions were about an incident that took place a year later,” Schneider said. “This appears to be a delay tactic.”
Beltran has been placed on restricted assignment and is no longer working at the jail, according to the Broward Sheriff’s Office. Efforts to reach his attorney in Seattle by telephone Monday were unsuccessful. Scherer didn’t rule on whether to delay the trial, but she set a hearing on Jan. 27 to determine whether to grant a continuance to the defense. That’s the same day jury selection was set to begin.
Burke said he also was looking for jail surveillance video starting from an hour or two before the alleged attack and continuing for several hours afterward. Scherer agreed that the video from before the attack, if it exists and hasn’t been deleted, might be useful to show Cruz’s state of mind.
But it’s not clear whether the video still exists — a question that will be researched by the prosecution and addressed at the Jan. 27 court date.