FORT LAUDERDALE -Game titles and lies.
That is how a important prosecution witness explained his time with the Parkland shooter six months back.
Dr. Robert Denney was employed to perform neurological tests on the confessed killer in March.
He expended hrs on the witness stand Tuesday explaining to the jury his results.
Dr. Denney mentioned the shooter purposely did badly on assessments administered to see if he suffers from fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, the main purpose his protection group suggests why he murdered 17 people today 4 years back.
But just after presenting dozens of charts demonstrating the results of IQ assessments and other examinations and lengthy explanations of averages and typical deviations that even experienced the judge joking she comprehended why some jurors were being drinking solid Cuban espresso, assistant prosecutor Jeff Marcus pulled his trump card.
He turned to the easiest exam given to Cruz: How quick can he faucet his dominant remaining index finger?
During tests administered previously this year by specialists his lawyers hired, Cruz averaged 22 taps in 10 seconds.
Neuropsychologist Dr Robert Denney said the ordinary male scores 51 on that take a look at and a 22 would be a score only an individual with a significant mind damage that brings about physical stiffness would tally.
Marcus then performed a cellphone online video snippet from the Feb. 14, 2018, massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas Significant School that recorded Cruz firing his AR-15-model semiautomatic rifle 20 instances in 7 seconds that bundled a a person-2nd pause — just about every shot needed a different set off pull.
He then showed stability online video of Cruz effortlessly turning and firing two photographs into a mentor who experimented with to quit him and a further of him swiftly eliminating his gun’s journal and reloading a new 1.
A individual who genuinely scored so poorly on the finger tapping exam “would not be in a position to pull the induce like that,” Denney explained, nor would he be ready to fireplace and reload in one particular motion like he did.”
Cruz, 24, pleaded responsible a year ago to the murders of 14 students and 3 team members at Marjory Stoneman Douglas superior faculty in 2018.
The demo is to make a decision if he is sentenced to demise or everyday living with no the risk of parole.
A unanimous vote by the seven-man, 5-girl jury is essential for Cruz to get demise. Anything at all a lot less and his sentence will be existence.
Direct prosecutor Mike Satz hopes Denney’s testimony will rebut the defense’s competition that weighty drinking by Cruz’s start mom through pregnancy place him on a lifelong route of bizarre and at times violent actions that culminated in the shootings.
The defense also tried using to demonstrate that his adoptive mother, Lynda Cruz, turned overcome after her spouse died when Cruz was 5 and under no circumstances obtained him entire remedy for his psychological health challenges. She died fewer than 3 months prior to the shootings.
Denney, who does agreement perform for the federal jail program, testified Tuesday that he disagrees with the protection experts’ competition that Cruz suffers from fetal alcoholic beverages spectrum problem. The Missouri practitioner said the previous Stoneman Douglas student’s IQ scores of about 90 and the effects of tests supplied him right after the assault will not assist that analysis.
“Mr. Cruz’s scores are precisely what we would count on for person who does not have any fetal liquor complications,” Denney claimed.
Denney will be cross-examined by Cruz’s attorneys on Thursday. Court docket will not be in session Wednesday for the reason that of Yom Kippur. The prosecution is envisioned to finish its rebuttal case in the coming days with closing arguments and deliberations scheduled for following 7 days.
