“It was a systematic massacre,” prosecutor Mike Satz said during closing arguments for the trial of confessed gunman Nikolas Cruz.
Rafael Olmeda and Susannah Bryan, South Florida Sun SentinelFORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — What he did was cold. Calculated. Purposeful, prosecutors said.Before a packed courtroom filled with the families of 17 slain victims, spectators and news media, attorneys in the Parkland mass shooting trial made their final pleas for justice to a Broward jury: life in prison or death for confessed gunman Nikolas Cruz.
She repeatedly called him “Nikolas.” Sentencing him to life, not death, is “the right thing to do,” she said. “The state of Florida wants to put you in a place of hate, of anger and of vengeance. ... The law that we all live by tells us that we must not make decisions based on passion, emotion or anger.”
Cruz, now 24, bought his AR-15-style rifle nearly a year before his deadly rampage, Satz said. He accumulated ammunition and the magazines to hold them. He bought a vest to hold the magazines, and attachments to make the weapon easier to handle. He researched previous mass shootings, including Aurora, Las Vegas and Columbine. He googled how long it would take police to respond to a school shooting.Satz did not dwell on any single murder. Cruz killed 17 people.
It wasn’t necessary, McNeill countered. Jurors cannot help but remember the evidence or the testimony of the family members who poured their hearts out on the stand, eliciting tears even from the defense team. McNeill’s voice broke as she reminded jurors of their victim impact statements.
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