Jury Recommends Life in Prison for Nikolas Cruz

FORT LAUDERDALE (FLV) – Thursday, Jurors recommended Nikolas Cruz to life in prison, who plead guilty to killing 17 people in the 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting.

Family members of the Parkland victims reportedly “scowled” and “shook their heads” as the recommendation was read by Judge Elizabeth Scherer.

The decision came after just over a day of deliberation.

The state was seeking the death penalty for Cruz. For that to be accomplished, the verdict would have to be unanimous on at least one victim and would have to decide that certain factors, like cruelty of the crime, outweigh things like Cruz’s mental state at the time.

At least one juror reportedly believed “mitigating” factors, like his mental state, outweighed “aggravating” factors, like the cruelty of the shooting.

At the time of the shooting, Cruz was 19. He plead guilty in 2021 in reference to the Feb. 14, 2018 shooting. He is now 24.

The trial lasted around three months.