Attorney: Cruz to plead guilty to Parkland
Gunman who killed 17 hopes to avoid death
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – The gunman who killed 14 students and three staff members at a Parkland, Florida, high school will plead guilty to the murders, his attorneys said Friday, bringing some closure to a South Florida community more than three years after an attack that sparked a nationwide movement for gun control.
The guilty plea would set up a penalty phase where Nikolas Cruz, 23, would fight against the death penalty and hope for life without parole.
Cruz attorney David Wheeler told Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer that Cruz will plead guilty Wednesday to 17 counts of first-degree murder in the February 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. The pleas will come with no conditions and prosecutors still plan to seek the death penalty. That will be decided by a jury, with the judge hoping to start the trial in January after choosing a jury from thousands of prospects starting in November.
Cruz will also plead guilty to 17 counts of attempted first-degree murder. He was not initially present during the hearing, but later entered the Broward County courtroom to plead guilty to attacking a jail guard nine months after the shooting. He answered the judge’s question about his competency in a steady voice, replying, “Yes ma’am,” and “No ma’am.”
Cruz said he understood that prosecutors can use the conviction as an aggravating factor when they later argue for his execution.
The trial has been delayed by the pandemic and arguments between the prosecution and defense over what evidence and testimony could be presented to the jury. Some victims’ families had expressed frustration over the delays, but the president of the group they formed expressed relief that the case now seems closer to resolution.
Mitch and Annika Dworet, the only victims’ parents to attend the hearing, said they are relieved the case is finally moving toward closure. Their son Nick, 17, died in the shooting while his younger brother Alex was wounded.
Mitch Dworet said he tries not to think about the case, saying he wants to focus on their sons. But his wife interjected, “We want justice – it’s time.” For them, that means Cruz’s execution.
“We would like to see him suffer,” she said.
Andrew Pollack, whose daughter Meadow, 18, was killed, said he also wants Cruz to be executed. “Death by lethal injection seems too peaceful to me. I’d rather see a hanging in a public square,” Pollack said.
After the shooting, Parkland student activists formed March for Our Lives, a group that rallied hundreds of thousands around the country for tighter gun laws, including a nationally televised march in Washington, D.C. Parents also made impassioned pleas for accountability and policies aimed at halting gun violence. The decision by Cruz and his attorneys to plead guilty came unexpectedly. Cruz had been set to go on trial next week for the attack on the Broward County jail guard.
Cruz and his lawyers had long offered to plead guilty in exchange for a life sentence, but prosecutors rejected that deal, saying the case deserved a death sentence. Both sides declined comment as they left the courtroom Friday.
Attorney David Weinstein, a former Florida prosecutor who is not involved in the case, said by pleading guilty to the murder charges, Cruz’s lawyers will be able to tell the jury in the penalty hearing “that he has accepted responsibility, has shown remorse and saved the victim’s families the additional trauma of a guilt phase trial.”
The jurors also won’t repeatedly see the security videos that reportedly captured the shooting in graphic detail. Their goal will be to persuade one juror to vote for a life sentence – unanimity will be required to sentence Cruz to death.