In Nikolas Cruz case, dueling arguments from lawyers before jurors get to weigh in
FORT LAUDERDALE -- As the case against convicted mass murder Nikolas Cruz draws to a close, it was a difficult day for many in the court Tuesday as both sides delivered their closing arguments.
"The testimony revealed the unspeakable, horrific brutality," said prosecutor Michael Satz.
People who lost their loved ones during the Valentine's Day 2018 massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland hugged each other for support during the proceeding.
"It's been said (that) what one writes and what one says is a window to someone's soul," said Satz, who is seeking the death penalty, said while urging jurors to closely watch the videos made by the shooter before the massacre that left over a dozen people dead. "What he was doing, he was hunting his victims. That's what he wanted to do."
Satz showed jurors the massacre that was captured on surveillance video and that detailed each of the 17 murders, saying he made a plan and followed through.
The video prompted Lori Alhadeff to leave the courtroom in tears, while someone else in the courtroom shook his head in grief.
"It was calculated, it was purposeful and it was a systematic massacre," Satz said.
But attorneys for Cruz sought to sway jurors to hand down a life sentence.
"The state of Florida wants to put you in a place of hate and anger and vengeance," said lead defense attorney Melisa McNeil. "If that is where you're at you are more likely to sentence that young man to death."
She said no one is denying Cruz did horrible things, but the defense argued that he was damaged from the beginning via his birth mother Brenda's abuse of drugs and alcohol.
"You now know that Nikolas is a brain damaged, broken, mentally ill person, through no fault of own," McNeil said. "He was literally poisoned in Brenda's womb."
Cruz's lawyer urged the jury to consider life in prison, asking for mercy, pointing out they can never take back their decision.
"So I now put his life in your hands," McNeill said.
