What to know as the Parkland shooter goes on trial

Parkland school shooter Nikolas Cruz’s sentencing trial is set to begin this week, more than four years after he killed 17 people and injured 17 others at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. 

The now-23-year-old has already pleaded guilty to all 17 counts of first-degree murder and 17 counts of attempted murder over the 2018 shooting. Because Cruz did not take his own life or die amid the police response, his trial is somewhat rare for a mass shooter.

As jury selection begins on Monday, here’s what to know and watch for.

Death or life without parole 

The 12-person jury and Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer will be tasked with deciding Cruz’s fate: either death or life without parole. 

Should the jury decide to recommend executing Cruz, the decision must be unanimous. But Scherer will ultimately make the final decision.

Twenty jurors, including 12 people on the jury and eight alternates, are expected to be selected for the sentencing. 

Jury selection is further complicated by widespread public familiarity with the shooting, making it difficult to select an impartial jury.

Mentally ill or not

On Feb. 14, 2018, Cruz, 19 at the time, went to the school with an AR-15 in a bag made to look like a musical instrument. He then began shooting and killed 14 students and three faculty members. 

The defense will attempt to convince at least one juror that Cruz was seriously mentally ill, with the jury expected to hear evidence about Cruz’s past as well as testimony from the victims’ families.

“Every day is painful for us after our daughter was murdered,” Tony Montalto, whose daughter, Gina, was killed in the shooting, told NPR. “This cold, calculated and deliberate act deprived us of our beautiful and loving daughter.”

Prior to the mass shooting, Cruz had a troubled family background. His birth mother was arrested for buying crack cocaine while she was five months pregnant with him, and at age 5, he witnessed the death of his adoptive father, according to The Palm Beach Post.

Court records have indicated that Cruz displayed a history of sometimes violent behavior. Upon enrolling in class at Marjory Stoneman Douglas, he had taken to social media and threatened to shoot up the school within the first month of classes there, the Post reported. 

‘I am very sorry for what I did’

In September of 2017, the FBI had been warned about a YouTube user named Nikolas Cruz who said, “I’m going to be a professional school shooter.’’

At the time of his guilty pleas in October last year, however, Cruz said in a statement: “I am very sorry for what I did, and I have to live with it every day,”

“I have to live with this everyday, and it brings me nightmares and I can’t live with myself sometimes. But I try to push through, because I know that’s what you guys would want me to do.”

The trial is expected to last at least four months, and jury selection will likely take weeks as a result of the public nature of the case.