FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — For the 17 who lost their lives, the gunman was sentenced Wednesday to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
For the 17 whose flesh was torn by powerful bullets fired from an AR-15-style rifle but somehow managed to survive, the gunman was sentenced to life in prison under the state’s 10-20-life statute.
The sentences are to be served consecutively, a symbolic gesture. The defendant, Nikolas Jacob Cruz, 24, will never see the light of day as a free man again.
As for the 17: “They will not be forgotten,” Broward Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer said before imposing sentence. “The way that you have grieved so gracefully is something I have never seen ... When people remember that school, they are going to remember the strength of that community.”
For some, the sentence was not good enough. The killer was spared the ultimate penalty, death, when a jury failed to reach unanimous agreement last month.
Family members of the 17 slain at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland on Feb. 14, 2018, shared their feelings Wednesday, a day after Cruz’s sentencing hearing began.
As a rule, they do not speak his name. Not one family member broke that rule.
“You’re going to die before me,” said Manuel Oliver, father of slain victim Joaquin Oliver, mocking the defendant’s quest for fame by hoping he falls into the care of a fellow prisoner. Oliver, not known for his emotional restraint, said he learned during the trial how much his son suffered when the gunman made his way through the third floor of the school’s 1200 building. “I was told not to use profanity here,” he said. “I won’t. I’ll try.”
He failed.
He was the last of a long line of speakers who got to express their feelings to the judge, the prosecution, the defense, and lastly to Cruz.
“You were a hateful bigot with an AR-15 and a God complex,” said former classmate Samantha Fuentes, a survivor of the shooting. “You still are, minus the gun ... the people you killed will have a legacy much greater than yours ... My name is Sam Fuentes. You will not forget me. You will not forget us until the last day you breathe.”
Fuentes glared at the defendant, who looked at her blankly, most of his face concealed behind a surgical mask.
“Just to be in the same room as this monster who killed our son, Nicholas, and attempted to kill our son, Alex, is unbearable,” said Annika Dworet, who recited the names of all 17 victims. “May their memories be a blessing.”
Those who killed were: Alyssa Alhadeff, 14; Scott Beigel, 35; Martin Duque Anguiano, 14; Nicholas Dworet, 17; Aaron Feis, 37; Jaime Guttenberg, 14; Christopher Hixon, 49; Luke Hoyer, 15; Cara Loughran, 14; Gina Montalto, 14; Joaquin Oliver, 17; Alaina Petty, 14; Meadow Pollack, 18; Helena Ramsay, 17; Alexander Schachter, 14; Carmen Schentrup, 16; and Peter Wang, 15.
School board member Lori Alhadeff said her daughter Alyssa played the “best game of her life” at a soccer match the day before the shooting. “You robbed Alyssa of a lifetime of memories!” she shouted at the defendant, wishing him a “miserable” future.
“Know this: While my family mourns our beautiful Alyssa, you will not own us or our feelings,” said the victim’s father, Ilan Marc Alhadeff, who denounced the defendant as an animal who deserves to be forgotten.
Victoria Gonzalez, girlfriend of slain victim Oliver, showed up in court wearing one of his T-shirts, which read, in Spanish, “You with bullets, I with balls,” an anti-violence slogan promoting athletics.
“Joaquin loved me, for all of my flaws,” she said. “Nobody else is allowed to love me like that.” She said she no longer feels safe, thanks to Cruz.
She acknowledged the defendant’s humanity and said she would have once wished for him “the love that I experienced” if not for what Cruz did.
“My justice does not lie in knowing if you live or die,” she said. “My justice lives in knowing that I loved, experienced a love most people can’t experience ... I choose love, so in the end, I think that I win.”
She said that, instead of the death penalty, love was her justice.
Before resuming her place in the gallery, she cursed at the defendant for what he did.
“This is a club no one wants to be in,” said Jennifer Guttenberg. “My daughter is Jaime Guttenberg. She is forever 14. And she is amazing still.”
Her husband, Fred Guttenberg, announced the day before on Twitter that he would not be speaking. On Wednesday, a few hours before the hearing began, he changed his mind.
He said it was after he saw the public defender, Gordon Weekes, suggest that the families were inciting violence, and say that “no one has endured what the defense has endured.”
“I was angry all day about it, and this morning I woke up and decided I shouldn’t be silent,” Guttenberg told the South Florida Sun Sentinel during a break in proceedings. “I don’t think we had a choice.”
In the courtroom, he praised Broward Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer for moving the case along despite conflicts with the defense and commitment to the fairness of the process. But he condemned the defense, calling for Weekes’ resignation.
“I actually think Public Defender Weekes believed it,” he said. “I think you all believe it: You’ve endured something worse than us.”
Last week, for the first time, Guttenberg said, he watched the surveillance video showing his daughter’s death. “I watched you kill my daughter,” Guttenberg said. “I saw you enjoy it ... She made it to within one second of making it out alive.”
Afterward, Guttenberg said he went to his daughter’s grave to reflect on the jury’s decision and Wednesday’s hearing.
“Every single family, because of what you did, is doing amazing things in the country today in the name of safety, in the name of saving lives, making sure our schools are safer, our streets are safer,” he said to Cruz.
Linda Schulman, mother of slain victim Scott Biegel, said she was relieved to learn Cruz will spend the rest of his life in prison without the amenities of death row.
“Real justice would be done if each family in here were give a bullet in your AR-15,” she said, openly wishing for Cruz to be subjected to prison justice.
As the sentences were read, the family members wept. The defendant, sitting in his red maximum security jail jumpsuit and large framed jail-issued glasses, wore no expression. He cannot profit from the crime with a book or movie deal, the judge ordered.
Cruz was then escorted by deputies from the courtroom back to the jail, where he will be prepared for transfer to the Florida prison system.
