FORT LAUDERDALE – Prosecutors in the penalty demo of Florida college shooter Nikolas Cruz commenced their rebuttal of the defense circumstance Tuesday by questioning regardless of whether his beginning mom drank as closely through being pregnant as some witnesses portrayed.
They also confirmed his occasionally racist and misogynistic conduct on the web in advance of he massacred 17 folks 4 many years in the past at Parkland’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas Large College, his on the web searches for youngster pornography and the violent writings and drawings observed in his jail mobile last spring.
Prosecution qualified Dr. Charles Scott, a forensic psychiatrist at the College of California, Davis, testified that when defense experts and witnesses have said Cruz’s beginning mother, Brenda Woodard, drank fortified wine and malt liquor through pregnancy, he claimed there is scant proof supporting that in her healthcare records.
Not only do people data show she denied consuming immediately after five months of pregnancy, there is nothing in Woodard’s health practitioner examinations or Cruz’s infant medical records that suggest to him she was lying.
The records “elevated questions for me what was the reality of the alcoholic beverages (abuse),” Scott stated. Woodard died last calendar year.
Prosecutors made use of Scott’s testimony to clearly show the jury swastikas drawn on Cruz’s gun journal and his boots, his on the net racism and misogyny and his on the net searches for boy or girl pornography.
They say people facts support Scott’s diagnosis that Cruz’s murder of 14 learners and a few employees customers at the large university was driven by delinquent temperament dysfunction – frequently recognised as getting a sociopath. Cruz, 24, pleaded responsible previous October to the Feb. 14, 2018, murders – the trial is only to choose no matter if he is sentenced to dying or lifestyle with out the likelihood of parole.
Scott testified that Cruz is able of controlling his conduct but chooses not to as he has no regard for other individuals, the major trait of antisocial temperament dysfunction. He also confirmed online video clips from his 3 times of interviews with Cruz from past March. Although defense gurus mentioned Cruz has a a little bit down below-common IQ, Cruz engaged Scott in a higher-stage dialogue about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine that experienced started just times previously. Cruz reviewed Russian President Vladimir Putin’s goals and record with clarity.
Prior to Scott using the stand, prosecutors made use of Broward County sheriff’s investigators and a jail guard to introduce the swastikas that had been drawn on the magazine discovered in Cruz’s AR-15-fashion semiautomatic rifle and his use of anti-Black and anti-woman slurs on the web. 5 of Cruz’s 12 jurors are women and 7 determine as racial minorities. For Cruz to get a death sentence, a unanimous vote is necessary.
Detective Nick Masters, an on the net investigator, claimed Cruz searched for how to invest in a Nazi flag, for information and facts on Adolf Hitler’s birthday and how to get a swastika tattoo. Cruz wrote “the Nazi party will rise all over again.” He designed lookups and opinions applying a racial slur directed versus Black men and women. He wrote that he punched his widowed mom and known as her a slur utilised towards gals. He wrote that “females are a lot less critical than a puppy.”
Masters confirmed numerous graphic lookups Cruz built for baby pornography. He also produced feedback extolling animal abuse, stating he had killed 12 cats and wrote, “I am happy when animals die. It helps make me content.”
Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer only permitted prosecutors to existing a portion of the on the internet lookups and responses Cruz produced, stating extra would be excessively prejudicial. There is no competition that Cruz precisely specific ladies or minorities. 8 of his victims have been women and four were being racial minorities.
All through cross-assessment, Cruz lawyer Nawal Bashimam asked Masters about other lookups Cruz made these as how to get a girlfriend, how to deal with loneliness, how to obtain psychological wellness treatment method and “How do I enable myself with these bad feelings?” Masters mentioned he experienced observed some of all those.
Prosecutors also showed writings and drawings jail guard Jean Joel Marque-Pucheu located in Cruz’s mobile in May perhaps wherever Cruz fantasized both of those about killing a Stoneman Douglas rival and foreseeable future university massacres.
They confirmed writings exactly where Cruz praised Satan and images of a drawing he built in his mobile with his have blood of a pentagram and the amount 666, which some believe that is the indication of the Anti-Christ.
All through their situation, Cruz’s attorneys experimented with to exhibit how his late beginning mother’s alcoholic beverages abuse for the duration of being pregnant put Cruz onto a lifelong path of erratic, strange and generally violent conduct that culminated in the shootings. They also tried to display that his adoptive mom, Lynda Cruz, became overcome right after her partner died when Cruz was 5. She died fewer than a few months right before the shootings.
Due to the fact of Hurricane Ian’s technique to Florida, which is predicted to provide weighty rain to Fort Lauderdale in excess of the next two times, the trial will resume Monday with Scott continue to on the witness stand.
