![]() He was anxious, fell when he ran and couldn't use utensils. Neighbors and teachers testified he hit and bit other children and didn't socialize. She was just the happiest I ever saw.”īut by preschool, Cruz showed extreme behavior. ![]() She would go and get him all these sailor outfits. So once she got Nikolas, she felt like her family was complete," friend Trish Davaney-Westerlind testified. Lynda Cruz "had wanted a child, always wanted a child. Roger Cruz, then 61, owned a successful marketing business. Lynda Cruz, who turned 50 shortly after adopting Nikolas, was a stay-at-home mom. They adopted Nikolas at birth in 1998 and, in 2000, Zachary, who had a different birth father. The defense wants to show that from Cruz's birth to a hard-drinking, crack-smoking Fort Lauderdale prostitute, he never fully received needed help even as he grew increasingly out of control.Īnd nowhere was that more apparent than in the home Roger and Lynda Cruz built in Parkland, an upscale Fort Lauderdale suburb. In an attempt to counter that, assistant public defender Melisa McNeill and her team have made Cruz's history their case's centerpiece, hoping at least one juror will vote for life. Parents and spouses gave tearful and angry statements about their loss. ![]() He showed graphic autopsy and crime scene photos and took jurors to the still blood-stained, bullet-pocked classroom building Cruz terrorized. Teachers and students testified about watching others die. He played security videos of the shooting and showed the AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle Cruz used. Lead prosecutor Mike Satz's case was straightforward. The trial resumes Monday after a week off. His trial is only to decide whether he is sentenced to death or life without parole. Nikolas Cruz, 23, pleaded guilty in October to murdering 17 students and staff members at Parkland's Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Feb. In turn, “they were very good at pushing (their mother's) buttons.” “Nikolas was very easily set off and I think Zachary derived some pleasure from pushing Nikolas’ buttons,” testified Frederick Kravitz, one of Cruz's childhood psychologists.
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