![]() His adoptive father, Roger, died in 2014. Lynda Cruz, Nicholas’ adoptive mother, passed away in October 2017. What’s not open-and-shut is the disposition of his mother’s estate. It would seem to be an open-and-shut case. He has admitted to the crime, and his court-appointed defense attorneys told CNN that he intends to plead guilty if doing so will allow him to avoid the death penalty. Last October, Cruz pleaded guilty to the massacre that killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland in 2018.Nicholas Cruz, the gunman who killed 17 people at Parkland’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on February 14, now sits in a Broward County jail. ![]() The defense is trying to convince jurors to support life in prison for the confessed Parkland school killer. Much of the testimony focused on medical issues - mental and physical - from birth, because of his mother. ![]() She discussed Cruz's academics and behavior, and also went over school records from that time.Ĭourt had not been in session since a half-day on Thursday. Lynne Rodriguez testified she was in court because she had gotten a subpoena. Or that you're talking about sneakers and I picked up on the sneaker part but I started talking about shoe strings."ĭuring cross-examination, the prosecution questioned her qualifications to administer certain tests, how she got the scores and how she used the scores.Įarlier Monday, the defense team called Cruz's third grade teacher to the stand. Where sometimes you are able to get the information out but when you did it came out as gibberish. RELATED: Student-witness: 'I had a bullet wound enter my right leg & then explode on my right side' RELATED: Life or death for Parkland school killer? Testimony underway in Cruz sentencing trialĪnd she described trying to communicate with his impairment: "It's almost like you're walking around in a booth by yourself or you're screaming internally but no one can hear you on the other side. She blamed his impairment for "breaking down his attempt to make friends, so his thought or approach to making a friend was not common to the other children." you're screaming internally but no one can hear you She described a "severe language disorder" and Cruz being "at least two years behind his chronological age of 8 years, 4 months." Shameka Stanford, who specializes in childhood disorders and law enforcement. The recording of Browd was interrupted by lunch, and then speech and language pathologist Dr. She would tell Nikolas that he looks just like her"īrowd added, Cruz said Zachary - who was two years younger - looked like her husband. She kind of like secluded herself so people wouldn't see her for a while and she could've been pregnant. She said she warned Cruz, "Later on, people are going to know that that's not her biological child. I know that Nik wasn't her only child."īrowd also testified that Lynda Cruz, 49 at the time, kept the fact Nikolas was adopted a secret, even from both sides of the family. "She kinda like described the biological mother as like 'not having, not being like us, not like a surrogate mother.' That's how I would describe it," Browd said. The two discussed what they knew about Brenda Woodard, who drank and used drugs during her pregnancy with Nikolas. RELATED: Parkland parents suffer while medical examiners describe how Cruz killed more MSD students RELATED: Nikolas Cruz after his killings, from Subway to McDonald's to being taken down "Lynda would take her to the appointments and make sure that she was doing things the correct way," Browd remembered. he would point.”īrowd said Roger and Lynda Cruz had paid for everything for Nikolas' biological mother, including living expenses. "He would communicate with gestures, with his hands. She also said Nikolas would have tantrums when things changed, like his mother getting a new car.Īlso, "He wasn’t able to communicate with words," when he wanted something, she said. Zachary was able to use a fork before Nikolas, who would have tantrums if he didn't like his food. Browd said Nikolas wore pull-up diapers until he was 5, and that he had trouble eating.
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