Nikolas Cruz judge OKs request to allow Broward deputies to probe juror's threat allegation
FORT LAUDERDALE - The judge overseeing the Nikolas Cruz case ruled Friday that prosecutors can release the name of a juror who said they felt threatened by a fellow juror during deliberations this week to decide his sentencing.
Broward Judge Elizabeth Scherer made the decision during a brief hearing after prosecutors filed documents to compel an interview with the juror.
There are three jurors whose conduct have been questioned or have raised questions about the private deliberations that occurred when jurors decided to spare Cruz's life and send him to prison without the possibility of parole.
The juror whom prosecutors want to interview allegedly told a state lawyer that she felt threatened by another juror.
The motion filed by the state calls for law enforcement to interview the unnamed juror after she told the state attorney's office that "she perceived to be a threat from a fellow juror while in the jury room." .
Cruz, 24, pleaded guilty a year ago to murdering 14 students and three staff members and wounding 17 others, at Parkland's Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Feb. 14, 2018.
A divided jury spared Cruz the death penalty and instead decided to send him to prison for the rest of his life in a decision that left many families of the victims angered, baffled, and in tears.
Lead public defender, Melisa McNeill, told the jury during her closing argument Tuesday that life in prison would still be a horrible punishment and suggested that other prisoners might target him.
But that wasn't enough for many family members, who went before television cameras, one by one, to express their shock and anger at the jury's decision. Some called Cruz a "monster," while others cried.
Under Florida law, a death sentence requires a unanimous vote on at least one count. The seven-man, five-woman jury unanimously agreed there were aggravating factors to warrant a possible death sentence, such as agreeing that the murders were "especially heinous, atrocious or cruel." One or more jurors, however, stuck to the mitigating factors, such as untreated childhood issues.
During their deliberations, the jury requested to see the rifle Cruz used in the attack.
"We requested to bring it in to demonstrate to some jurors the capability required to assemble the parts added and to use the weapon," said jury foreman Benjamin Thomas.
There was speculation that seeing the weapon would help change the minds of those wanting to show Cruz mercy.
In the end, the jury could not agree that the aggravating factors outweighed the mitigating ones, so Cruz will get life without parole. Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer will formally issue the life sentences November 1.
Relatives, along with the students and teachers Cruz wounded, will be given the opportunity to speak.
The jurors pledged during the selection process that they could vote for a death sentence, but some victims' parents, some of whom attended the trial almost daily, wondered whether all of them were being honest.
Juror Denise Cunha sent a short handwritten note to the judge Thursday defending her vote for a life sentence and denying she intended to vote that way before the trial began.
"The deliberations were very tense and some jurors became extremely unhappy once I mentioned that I would vote for life," Cunha wrote.
She did not explain her vote and it is unknown if she is the juror who complained to the state attorney's office.
Jury foreman Benjamin Thomas told local reporters that three jurors voted for life on the final ballot. Two were willing to reconsider, but one was a "hard no" for the death penalty.
"It really came down to a specific (juror) that he (Cruz) was mentally ill," Thomas said. He did not say whether that person was Cunha.
