FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — The deepest wounds of the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School don’t show up on surveillance video, crime scene photos or autopsy pictures of the 17 slain.
They are written on the faces of the family they left behind. Those family members continued to tell jurors their stories Tuesday as the penalty phase trial continued in a Broward County courtroom. The jury still has to consider the killer's sentence.
Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for gunman Nikolas Cruz who pleaded guilty to the murder or attempted murder of 34 people at the school.
There isn’t even a word to describe the pain of losing her only daughter, said Lori Alhadeff, the mother of Alyssa Alhadeff, a 14-year-old Stoneman Douglas High School student, aspiring attorney and a soccer team captain as No. 8.
“I’m left with a feeling of emptiness,” she said. “I look around our home and see photo albums that will never be filled.”
Lori Alhadeff choked up as she described Alyssa as “my best friend and love of my life.”
She was supposed to get married, have a career and children, said her father, Dr. Ilan Alhadeff. While other families enjoy their daughters, he told the jury, he can hear Alyssa’s infectious laugh only on social media videos. His heart was “ripped out of my damn chest.”
His voice rose at times, almost shouting, as he read his statement. “This is not normal!” he said after describing his young son asking to visit his sister — at her grave. Young boys “should not know of such sorrow, such loss and tragedy.”
He said he has to live his life with anger. “Inside I burn like a damn inferno,” he said. “It took me so long to feel empathy again.”
After he finished his tearful statement, he embraced his wife before leaving the witness stand.
Alyssa’s grandmother, Theresa Robinovitz, began her statement by saying, “Living after the death of a child is beyond tears.” She said she’s been seeing a psychologist for spells of depression and anxiety since the murder as well as “anger which has replaced the pure joy of living each day.”
One of the shooter’s defense attorneys wiped her eyes after Robinovitz gave her tearful testimony.
Also addressing the jury Tuesday morning were the parents of Nicholas Dworet, who planned to study finance at the University of Indianapolis where he had received a scholarship. He was swim captain of his high school swim team. And he was a lover of sushi, pizza and Oreo cookies, which he kept a stash of, hidden in his closet.
Nicholas had big goals, “bigger than most of us dare to dream of,” his mother said. He told her, “I want to become a Swedish Olympian. I will train as hard as I can, in and out of the water. I swear to give it my all and I will let nothing stand in my way.”
His mother now hesitates when strangers ask “How many kids do you have?”
“We will always live in excruciating pain,” his mother, Annika Dworet, said, her voice choked by tears. “We will always live with excruciating pain.”
Gena Hoyer, mother of Luke Hoyer, described a boy who loved to laugh, the youngest of his siblings. His family called him Lukey Bear. Even now she visualizes seeing him in the passenger seat, touching his cheek.
He was the 5-year old who got a goodnight kiss, to have him wipe it off so he could get yet another. Even as a teen, he found his mom to wish her good night.
Now she pleads with God to “give him a big hug and a kiss for me,” Hoyer said.
“It’s pure agony” knowing he’s not in his bed upstairs, she told the jury. The day he died, he thanked his mom for his Valentine’s Day candy and card. That bag of Skittles stayed there for a year, she said. His clothes are still where he left them, his phone charger is still on his nightstand, notes from his coach are posted on his wall.
The pain, she said, “I cannot come close to describing. ... Christmases are almost unbearable.”
Two defense lawyers for Cruz wiped their eyes after her tearful testimony.
“All you see is a broken family,” said Luke’s father, Tom Hoyer. “I don’t know that I ever will feel real peace.”
On Monday, families of Joaquin Oliver, Scott Biegel and Alaina Petty shared the devastating loss of their loved ones.
Before the impact statements from the victims’ families were read late Tuesday morning, the jury heard more testimony about the AR-15-style weapon used in the mass shooting. AR-15 bullets are three times as fast as bullets fired from a semi-automatic handgun, George Bello, the crime lab unit manager for the Broward Sheriff’s Office, testified.
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