Victim impact statements continue during 11th day of Cruz’s death penalty trial
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Prosecutors called the family of 14-year-old Alexander Schachter to the stand on Wednesday in the 17th-floor courtroom at the Broward County judicial complex’s west building in Fort Lauderdale.
Jennifer and Tony Montalto sat together behind the stand to talk about 14-year-old Gina Montalto, their firstborn child. Gina’s mother read her statement first. Her father followed after a brief break.
“The pain I feel is magnified as I look at my wife and see her struggle without Gina … It tears me apart to see her suffer,” Tony Montalto said adding, “My son struggles to make sense of Gina’s death.”
As the Parkland school shooter’s death penalty trial continued, the victim impact statements of five of the 17 victims of the 2018 Valentine’s Day massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School were pending.
The four victims: 14-year-old Cara Loughran, Peter Wang, 15; Helena Ramsey, 17; and Christopher Hixon, 49.
Debra Hixon, the widow of the 27-year U.S. Navy veteran, was in the audience. The veteran, who served in Desert Storm and Desert Shield, was the school’s athletic director when he ran into the 1200 building.
Nikolas Cruz’s long-awaited penalty phase began on July 18. As of Wednesday afternoon, prosecutors had called 82 witnesses to testify about the case at the 17th-floor courtroom.
The list of witnesses the jury has listened to includes the 17 victims who survived their injuries on Feb. 14, 2018, at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School’s three-story 1200 building.
It also includes the 22 — most of them grieving mothers and fathers — who have read victim impact statements for 13 of the 17 people who Cruz killed. Some of Cruz’s defense attorneys dabbed their eyes during the tearful testimony.
Cruz was 19 years old when he used an AR-15 rifle to fire high-velocity rounds at students, teachers, and staff. Cruz, now 23, pleaded guilty to 17 counts of murder and 17 counts of attempted murder in October.
Wednesday in court started with a hearing about the testimony of Sgt. Raymond “Ray” Beltran, a Broward Sheriff’s Office deputy who Nikolas Cruz attacked in jail on Nov. 13, 2018.
The defense wants it excluded as irrelevant. The prosecution alleges the attack is a “life-threatening event.” Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer denied the defense’s motion.
Jurors have viewed photos of the victims’ bodies when forensic pathologists described the fatal wounds. They also watched videos of Cruz and read about his morbid obsessions online when detectives explained the evidence gathered from his phone and surveillance cameras.
It will be up to the 12 jurors to decide Cruz’s fate after the prosecution and the defense present their cases. They have to vote unanimously on each of the victims for Cruz to be executed. Otherwise, Cruz will face life in prison without the possibility of parole.
