FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Jurors in the penalty trial of the confessed Parkland gunman listened to law enforcement officers describe carnage during the fifth day of testimony: injured students pleading for help, and body after body of people who were either defenseless or spent their final breaths providing cover for students to escape.
The images of violence depicted in Friday’s testimony were not unlike the emotional firsthand accounts of students and teachers earlier in the week. But, for the first time, jurors examined crime scene and autopsy photos of deceased students. It took more than an hour.
Iouri Boiko, a Broward County medical examiner, performed autopsies for Martin Duque, Alaina Petty, Carmen Schentrup and Meadow Pollack the day after the Feb. 14, 2018, shooting. He described his findings in clinical, precise detail while jurors viewed photos of their wounds.
