FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla.—The penalty trial of Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz began on Monday, the deadliest U.S. mass shooting to go before a jury.
Cruz, 23, pleaded guilty last October to 17 counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of 14 students and three staff members at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School, and is only contesting his sentence. Jurors must decide whether he gets death or life without parole.
Lead prosecutor Mike Satz was expected to highlight Cruz’s brutality as he stalked a three-story classroom building, firing his AR-15 semi-automatic rifle down hallways and into classrooms. Cruz sometimes walked back to wounded victims and killed them with a second volley of shots….