Jurors tour site of massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High
FORT LAUDERDALE - The prosecution in the sentencing trial of Parkland school shooter Nikolas Cruz rested its case hours after the jury visited the crime scene at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Thursday.
The jury was taken to the school in the morning and allowed to walk through the 1200 building where the massacre happened in 2018. They were at the school for about 90 minutes.
They viewed the hallway and classrooms where the shooter used an AR-15 assault rifle to carry out the massacre. Accompanying the jury were Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer, prosecutors, and Cruz's attorneys. The defense filed a waiver so Cruz did not attend.
Before the jury went, Scherer questioned Cruz about his decision.
"Do you understand that you have a right under Florida law and the Constitution to be present at the view today," she asked.
"Yes ma'am," he replied.
"And do you understand we're all going to be going and the jury's going to be viewing the crime scene today," she asked. "Is it your decision that you do not want to attend?"
"Yes," he replied.
"And have you had enough time to think about that decision?" she said.
"Yes ma'am," he said.
"Do you have any uncertainty about your decision," she asked.
"No ma'am."
The three-story classroom building has been sealed since the Valentine's Day 2018 shooting. The floors remain bloodstained and bullet holes remain in the walls.
The jury was not allowed to talk, ask questions, or point things out. They also couldn't touch anything or make any recording of what they saw.
After the jury left, a select group of reporters, including CBS4's Joan Murray, were allowed inside.
She made these observations:
"When you step into the building it feels frozen in time. The classrooms are full of laptops layered with dust, writing assignments and even unfinished math problems."
"What strikes you is the amount of glass covering the floors from the hallway to the inside of the rooms. That's because the shooter fired into the windows on the doors of nearly every classroom in the building. The building has been airconditioned so there is no perceptible odor."
"We decided as a group of journalists to retrace the steps of the shooter."
"After we entered through the east side of the building, we saw the stairwell to the right where the shooter assembled his weapon and prepared to begin his spree. We also saw a stuffed animal and a heart-covered empty bag, possibly from a student fleeing the building when the massacre began unfolding. That was just one of many signs all around the school that there was a feeling of celebration in the air marking Valentine's day."
"Rooms are filled with full boxes of candy, balloons, stuffed animals and cards. The joy of the day was destroyed by the violence."
Out of the stairwell on the first floor, the shooter began firing with an assault rifle into a classroom and then shot three students in the hallway killing Martin Duque, Luke Hoyer and Gina Montalto.
Even though more than four years have passed the blood stain are visible. They are deep red, caked and unsettling. Further down the hall, you see where Athletic Director Chris Hixon was mortally wounded.
A blood stain marks the spot. Surveillance video shown in court revealed that Hixon rushed into the building from the west side and was shot once by the gunman. The gunman passes Hixon and shoots him again without mercy.
Six other students would die in classrooms on the first floor including Nick Dworet, Helena Ramsay. Alyssa Alhadeff, Alaina Petty, Alex Schacter and Carmen Schentrup.
Football coach Aaron Feis was murdered outside the door on the west end of the building as he tried to confront the shooter. There are bullet holes in walls and sad indicators of the lives taken like a folder with Alaina Petty's name on a desk.
No one was killed on the second floor but the gunman did shoot out the windows in the classrooms.
By this time, the students on the third floor hear the gunfire and try to escape.
The shooter comes out of the stairwell on the east side of the building and begins firing on approximately 20 students in the hallway.
It is on the third floor you see the carnage clearly. The shooter kills geography teacher Scott Beigel and he collapses in his classroom doorway. Students are trying to shield themselves in his classroom from the bullets. Thankfully the shooter does not go into the room.
But he continues firing, killing students.
Peter Wang, who was shot over a dozen times, and Joaquin Oliver who tried to fend off the bullets but is cornered in the hallway. Students, Meadow Pollack and Cara Loughran also died in the hallway. Jaime Gutenberg almost escaped but is cruelly shot and collapsed in the west side stairwell.
We also saw the teacher's lounge on the third floor where the gunman tried to blast through impact windows. There are five large bullet holes and the glass doesn't break.
It's believed he would have fired through those windows if he was able and shoot students on the ground who were fleeing the campus.
After that, the gunman dropped his rifle and vest in the west end stairwell and rushed out of the building trying to blend in with the fleeing crowd. He was captured within an hour.
The shooter's sentencing trial now in the third week will decide whether he lives or dies for the murders of 17 people at the school.
Prosecutors hope the visit will demonstrate to the jury that the shooter's actions were cold, calculated, 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.
Nikolas Cruz pleaded guilty to 17 counts of murder and 17 counts of attempted murder last fall. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty. Cruz's defense attorneys are asking the jury for a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.
To recommend a death sentence, jurors must be unanimous.