FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — It took more than four years for the sounds of shots fired at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland to reach a courtroom in downtown Fort Lauderdale.
When jurors heard those shots, the gunman at the defense table lowered his head and did not look up. Family members of his victims leaned on each other for support. Some couldn’t take it and left the room. Another could not wait five seconds into a video clip before declaring she’d had enough.
“Shut it off!” she called out.
The trial of Nikolas Cruz, the confessed gunman who took the lives of 14 students, a teacher, a coach and an athletic director at the high school on Feb. 14, 2018, opened on Monday with a slow boil, starting with a carefully rehearsed recitation from prosecutor Mike Satz and reaching a boiling point with video too sensitive to be shown in court.
Jurors are being asked to decide whether Cruz, 23, deserves to be executed for his crimes or sentenced to life in prison. To authorize an execution, the jury has to be unanimous in finding aggravating circumstances, of which Satz promised there would be seven.
Among them — the shootings were especially heinous, atrocious and cruel, and that they were cold, calculated and premeditated. And each shooting counts as an aggravating factor for the others.
For Monday, at least, the defense let prosecutors have their say and have their way. Assistant Public Defender Melisa McNeill chose to reserve the team’s opening statement until the prosecution is finished presenting its case. Satz called seven witnesses to the stand Monday. The defense did not ask a single question of any of them.
The prosecutor’s opening statement contained none of the histrionics that could be expected of a trial involving a mass shooter menacing the hallways of his old high school. Not once did Satz raise his voice or point to the defense table. Not once did he call Cruz names or compare him to well-known multiple murderers. Satz didn’t even tell the jury that executing Cruz would be the right thing to do.
Not once in a little under an hour did he consult his notes.
Florida law lays out the criteria for death penalty, Satz said, and Cruz meets the criteria.
“I’m going to speak to you about the unspeakable,” Satz told the jury. He said killer Nikolas Cruz had planned to be a school shooter for a long time. He described a video that Cruz made three days before the killing, bragging that he was going to be the “next school shooter” and that he hoped to kill at least 20.
“You’re all going to die. Pew pew pew. Ah yeah. Can’t wait,” Cruz said on the video. In reciting that to the jury, Satz left out the “pews” but was sure to include the fact that Cruz had it all planned out.
Then he carried out his plan.
“We were sitting ducks. There was no way to protect ourselves,” said Danielle Gilbert, who recorded the first series of cellphone videos shown to the jury. Gilbert was a junior at Stoneman Douglas at the time. The videos showed students and a teacher hiding in fear as about two dozen gunshots were fired nearby. Although her body is not seen until the final video clip, victim Carmen Schentrup was already dead just a few yards away from Gilbert.
The audio included cries from a boy, obviously in pain, moaning and pleading “Someone help me” several times as students talked about the bullets and whispered about police coming to get them.
A second video clip introduced as evidence at high volume left the sound of heavy gunfire echoing in the courtroom.
“Shut it off!” one family member pleaded from the audience. The outburst, as well as the volume at which the video was played, prompted defense attorney McNeill to call for a mistrial, saying it would prejudice the jury against their client. The motion was denied.
Satz had warned the jury that the details would be horrific. Satz said 139 shots were fired, 70 on the first floor, two in the west stairwell, six on the second floor, and 61 on the third floor.
When the shooting was done, Cruz made his escape by discarding his gun and tactical vest and blending in with students and teachers who were evacuating because a fire alarm had gone off, Satz said. Wearing a maroon JROTC Stoneman Douglas shirt, black pants and a blue baseball cap, Cruz went to a Walmart, where he bought a slushy drink from the Subway before heading to a nearby McDonald’s.
At McDonalds, Cruz ran into student John Wilford, who didn’t know that Cruz had shot his sister, Maddy. Cruz asked Wilford for a ride, which he declined, saying he was waiting for his mom to pick him up, Satz said.
Cruz then started heading to a nearby subdivision where Coconut Creek Police Officer Mike Leonard saw him and arrested him, Satz said.
The jurors listened to the first 911 call, from former teacher Brittany Sinitch, who was the first witness on the stand Monday.
During her testimony, Sinitch described the moment she heard the gunshots in the 1200 building of the high school. It was during the fourth period — nearing the end of the school day. Her students had been reading Romeo and Juliet and were writing Valentine’s Day cards when she heard “the loudest noise you could possibly imagine,” as she described it.
The gunshots were clear on the 911 recording played for the jury.
Emotions were visibly high in the courtroom. Some jurors struggled to keep their emotions in check, but most listened intently without flinching as Satz detailed every injury, every death on Valentine’s Day. Family members of victims also became emotional.
Fred Guttenberg, whose daughter Jaime was killed, wiped his eyes, then shook his head and mouthed to someone he was OK. Max Schachter, whose son Alex was killed, looked down, hand over face, shaking his head. Several women repeatedly dabbed at tears.
This trial is scheduled to last four months.
———
