Judge: Jury in Parkland shooter's trial can see swastikas Nikolas Cruz drew in class
FORT LAUDERDALE - The defense team for the convicted Parkland mass shooter asked the judge to declare a mistrial at his sentencing trial over a decision to allow the jury to see swastika drawings he made nearly a decade ago.
Judge Elizabeth Scherer denied the motion.
The jury then heard from a former 8th grade language arts teacher who kept notes and documents from the time the shooter was in her class from 2013 to 2014.
"He made me uncomfortable and was on my radar," said Carrie Yon, who testified remotely Thursday explaining her first impressions of the shooter when he attended Westglades Middle School in Parkland.
Yon said the shooter was a poor student who scribbled on assignments, flunked exams, cursed and drew inappropriate pictures like stick figures shooting each other.
She said he once did a project entitled: "the sex boat."
Yon said she became afraid of the shooter and felt he was a danger.
"He was impulsive, erratic; anything to get attention or not do the work," she said.
She also said she spoke to his mother in September 2013 about rewarding him with an Xbox, and discussing his obsession with guns.
Retired principal John Vesey testified that towards the end of 8th grade a decision was made to send the shooter to an alternative school for emotionally disabled children.
"His needs were too extreme," said Vesey.
Vesey was also asked if he knew that eventually the shooter was mainstreamed back to Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School, where he would kill 17 people in 2018.
Vesey said he was aware and would not have supported the decision to send him there a few years before the massacre.
And he said he regretted not warning the MSD faculty about the shooter's history at his middle school.