Assault trial will test effect of publicity in Stoneman Douglas shooter case

The Parkland school shooter is set to come face to face with potential jurors for the first time on Monday, giving him his first real look at the effect of pre-trial publicity on the people who will decide his fate.

Nikolas Cruz, 23, is set to go on trial for a Nov. 13, 2018, altercation with Broward detention deputy Ray Beltran, who was guarding Cruz alone at the Broward main jail.

At the time, Cruz was already the Broward jail system’s most notorious inmate, in custody awaiting trial in the murder of 17 students and staff at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School nearly nine months earlier. That shooting inspired statewide changes in gun laws and a national conversation about gun ownership that continues to this day.

Typically, jurors who know about a case are excluded from serving on it, but sometimes that’s just not possible. Broward Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer has divided jury selection into two phases. The first begins Monday and is intended to weed out anyone who knows so much about the case that they cannot be fair. This would include those who know little about the jailhouse battery charge but cannot separate that crime from the person accused of committing it.

With social distancing measures in place, Scherer’s courtroom can hold about 30 jurors at a time. More than 1,500 jurors have been summoned between Monday and Tuesday, according to court officials, with

under half of those usually showing up.

The second phase of jury selection will start Wednesday, with the goal of picking six jurors and several alternates from those who make it through the first phase.

Testimony may not take as long as jury selection — prosecutors have only a handful of witnesses to call, including the victim, who struggled with Cruz for just under a minute before subduing him, according to surveillance video. Cruz faces a maximum of 15 years in prison if convicted.

In the mass shooting case, he could be sentenced to death for any of the 17 first-degree murder counts if convicted. He is also charged with 17 counts of attempted murder. He has offered to plead guilty in exchange for a sentence of life in prison, but prosecutors have rejected the offer, arguing that the decision of whether to spare

Cruz’s life should be made by a jury, not lawyers.