![]() ![]() ![]() The teen, on the advice of his public defenders, had offered to plead guilty to the killings if the State Attorney’s Office would take the death penalty off the table and instead agree to life in prison without the possibility of parole. ![]() The Public Defender’s Office will share certain material with the new defense attorney, Weekes said, but it will be up to the new lawyers to determine their strategy for Cruz’s defense.Ī plea of not guilty to the murders of 17 students and staff at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High on Valentine’s Day 2018 was entered on Cruz’s behalf. The couple told the South Florida Sun Sentinel they had seen paperwork that they thought supported the claim Cruz was going to come into a lot of money. Most of the money would come when he turned 22, Cruz told the Sneads. The public defender’s motion said learning of the inheritance was news to them, but a court hearing to discuss the possibility was held last year and Cruz had told James and Kimberly Snead, a couple who took them into their Parkland home after his mother died, that he stood to inherit at least $800,000 from his deceased parents. The judge will have to determine who Cruz’s new defense lawyer will be, Weekes said. The ominous tip was forwarded to the deputy assigned to the school, Scot Peterson, records say.Cruz and his younger brother, Zachary, are to split a MetLife policy valued at $864,929.17, presumably a death benefit for their mother, Lynda, who died unexpectedly of a flu-like illness in November 2017. During his first month there, he posted on Instagram that he planned to shoot up the school, a neighbor's son told BSO. But Cruz showed signs of trouble almost immediately. The A-rated school is one of the best in the school district. 13, 2016, less than a year after documenting the student's morbid preoccupation, the school district allowed Cruz to enroll in Stoneman Douglas High. He will also engage in the conversation," the report says, going on to note that "Nikolas benefits from verbal praise and positive reinforcements." Douglas High "Nikolas at times will be distracted by inappropriate conversations of his peers if the topic is about guns, people being killed or the armed forces. "He is very concerned about his grades and how he is doing academically in class," the school report reads. He was "punched numerous times" for using racial slurs toward a peer.Īnd more alarming, he was fascinated by guns. But Cruz couldn't control himself.Īt a peer's urging, he jumped out of the back of a bus, the school district report says. He was conscientious about his grades, the report said. "He often perseverates on the idea that his current school is for students that are 'not smart' and that he can now handle being in 'regular' school." "Nikolas' personal goal is to mainstreamed to his home high school," according to a Broward school system report from June 2015, the end of his ninth-grade year. He didn't want to be there but attended through January in his 10th-grade year. Records show he left during eighth grade for Cross Creek School in Pompano Beach, which offers a program for emotionally and behaviorally disabled children. It didn't work out for Cruz to remain at Westglades Middle School in Coral Springs. Schoolground menaceĬruz never graduated high school, though he was still trying at age 19.įoul language, insults, disobedience, disruption - Cruz's behavior was exactly what schoolteachers frowned upon. A year later, she told deputies Nikolas, then 15, had punched the wall after she took away his Xbox. A few months later, she told deputies he had thrown her against the wall because she took away his Xbox gaming system. When he was 14, his mother reported that he had hit her with the plastic hose from a vacuum cleaner. The agency responded to 23 calls over 10 years, the Broward Sheriff's Office said. His mother called the police to say he got physical with his brother and with her. The deputy wrote that "Zachary wishes that he had been 'nicer' to his brother" and that there may be resentment between the two "as Nikolas may have been the favored brother." ![]() His brother told Palm Beach County Sheriff's deputies last week that "he and his friends, when they were younger, had bullied Nikolas, which he now regrets ever doing," the agency's report says. When Zachary wanted to play with friends, their mother would make him take Nikolas along, the former neighbor and friend said.Īt 5 foot 7 and 120 pounds, the slight Nikolas Cruz was bullied, records indicate. "She was his best friend."īut Nikolas had trouble making friends among peers, school records say. He was "a momma's boy," said the family friend. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |