Terry Spencer

September 02, 2022 | Daily Business Review

His public defenders are in their second week of presenting testimony about Cruz's troubled life — from his birth to a crack-addicted, hard-drinking prostitute who put him up for adoption to a childhood filled with emotional and psychological problems that witnesses said were never adequately addressed.

By Terry Spencer

5 minute read

August 26, 2022 | Daily Business Review

The defense is trying to show that Nikolas Cruz, 23, had a long history of mental health issues that were never fully treated.

By Terry Spencer

3 minute read

August 05, 2022 | Daily Business Review

Prosecutors, who rested their case following the jury's tour, hope the visit will help prove that Cruz's actions were cold, calculated, heinous and cruel; created a great risk of death to many people and "interfered with a government function" — all aggravating factors under Florida's capital punishment law.

By Terry Spencer

6 minute read

August 01, 2022 | Daily Business Review

The surveillance video of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting shows Nikolas Cruz moving methodically from floor-to-floor in a three-story classroom building, shooting down hallways and into classrooms.

By Terry Spencer

6 minute read

July 21, 2022 | Daily Business Review

One teacher said she and the students crouched on the floor around her desk and wounded students were moaning and crying. She used a blanket that normally covered her coffee machine as a tourniquet to stop the bleeding from a boy's arm.

By Terry Spencer

5 minute read

July 19, 2022 | Daily Business Review

Prosecutors also presented cellphone video from another student that showed classmates crouching behind chairs as Cruz fired through the classroom door window, the bangs reverberating over screams.

By Terry Spencer

6 minute read

July 18, 2022 | Daily Business Review

The Parkland shooting on Feb. 14, 2018 is the deadliest to reach trial in U.S. history.

By Terry Spencer

4 minute read

July 07, 2022 | Daily Business Review

According to transcripts that were read, Cruz told psychologists in jailhouse examinations that a friend carved the swastikas on some gun magazines used during the attack, but he carved the Nazi symbol on the boots he wore.

By Terry Spencer

5 minute read

July 05, 2022 | Daily Business Review

They will view graphic security video of terrified teens and teachers being shot point-blank or running for their lives, examine autopsy and crime scene photos and hear heartrending testimony from wounded survivors and family members of the murder victims.

By Terry Spencer

6 minute read

June 29, 2022 | Daily Business Review

The panel will have a task never faced by a U.S. jury — no American mass shooter who killed at least 17 people has ever made it to trial.

By Terry Spencer

4 minute read