CNN
—
Parkland school massacre gunman Nikolas Cruz will be formally sentenced this week to life in prison – but not until the families of those he killed in 2018 have one more opportunity to face him in court.
“You stole him from us, and you did not receive the justice that you deserved,” Debra Hixon, the widow of victim Christopher Hixon, told Cruz in the first statement Tuesday morning, referring to a Florida jury’s decision last month not to recommend he be sentenced to death.
“You were given a gift – a gift of grace and mercy,” she added, “something you did not show to any of your victims.”
After a monthslong trial to decide if Cruz should get the death penalty, a jury recommended he serve a life sentence without the possibility of parole for the shooting at a South Florida high school in which 17 people were killed, sparing his life after his defense attorneys argued he was a disturbed, mentally ill person.
Because jurors recommended life – three voted against a death sentence, which in Florida must be unanimous – Broward County Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer must abide by their decision when she sentences Cruz, 24, who pleaded guilty last year to 17 counts of murder and 17 counts of attempted murder.
Follow live updates: Parkland shooter Nikolas Cruz to be formally sentenced
Scherer is expected to issue a formal sentence Wednesday after the victims’ loved ones, many of whom were disappointed and angered by the jury’s sentencing recommendation, have another chance to take the stand starting Tuesday to testify about the impact of his actions.
The end of Cruz’s trial comes just over a year after he pleaded guilty in connection with the Valentine’s Day carnage at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, which catalyzed a nationwide call for gun control reform led by the shooting’s teenage survivors and the victims’ families. It remains the deadliest mass shooting at an American high school, even as the scourge of gun violence on US campuses continues; last week, a teacher and a student were killed in a shooting in St. Louis.
Many of the Parkland families already testified over several days this summer as prosecutors closed their case, describing the depth of the loss they had suffered. But those statements, according to the father of 14-year-old victim Jaime Guttenberg, who was among the 14 students killed, did not include everything the families wanted to say because they had to be vetted by attorneys on both sides.
“It wasn’t the extent of how we feel,” Fred Guttenberg told CNN last month after the jury’s decision. “At the sentencing hearing, we will get to say whatever we want, including discussing how we feel now about this verdict.”
The second round of victim impact testimony will happen over two days, with those who survived the shooting also entitled to speak, the Broward County State Attorney’s Office confirmed to CNN in a statement. It’s unclear how many of them or victims’ loved ones will take the stand, but no time limits are being imposed, and some people may testify via video conference.
Victim impact statements this week do not need to be shown to the lawyers in advance, the state attorney’s office said.
“I have a lot more I’d like to say. I have a lot more I’d like to say directly to the killer,” Guttenberg told CNN, adding, “We will now get to tell him exactly how we feel about him.”
Because of his plea, Cruz skipped the guilt phase of his trial and instead proceeded directly to the sentencing phase, in which prosecutors sought a death sentence while Cruz’s appointed public defenders lobbied for life without parole.
…
Read More: Parkland shooter’s victims face him in court once more before he’s sentenced to life in prison