Attorneys for Florida college shooter Nikolas Cruz started constructing their case Monday that his beginning mom’s alcohol abuse left him with extreme behavioral issues that finally led to his 2018 homicide of 17 individuals at Parkland’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas Excessive College.
Paul Connor, a Seattle-area neuropsychologist, stated medical data and testimony by prior witnesses present that Brenda Woodard drank and used cocaine all through a lot of her being pregnant earlier than Cruz’s beginning in 1998. Woodard, a Fort Lauderdale prostitute, gave up the newborn instantly to his adoptive dad and mom, Lynda and Roger Cruz. Woodard died final 12 months.
Connor, testifying by Zoom, instructed jurors that individuals with fetal alcohol spectrum dysfunction present at a younger age issues with motor expertise, impulse management, socializing and paying consideration — issues earlier protection testimony confirmed Cruz had.
Cruz’s preschool lecturers testified he couldn’t use utensils or run with out falling. He was recognized with consideration deficit hyperactivity dysfunction as a younger baby and lecturers testified that he was extraordinarily anxious and had bother making associates. He would have frequent outbursts in school and at residence, college data and testimony present. By center college, he was making threats.
Connor stated he measured Cruz’s IQ at 83, which he stated matches the marginally under common intelligence many individuals with fetal alcohol points typically rating.
Connor will resume his testimony Monday afternoon after which bear cross-examination by the prosecution.
Cruz, 23, pleaded responsible in October to murdering 14 college students and three workers members and wounding 17 others as he stalked a three-story classroom constructing with an AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle on Valentine’s Day 2018. His trial is just to resolve whether or not the previous Stoneman Douglas scholar is sentenced to loss of life or life with out parole. For the seven-man, five-woman jury to impose a loss of life sentence, the vote should be unanimous.
Lead prosecutor Mike Satz completed his main case final month. He performed safety movies of the capturing and confirmed the rifle Cruz used. Lecturers and college students testified about watching others die. He confirmed graphic post-mortem and crime scene photographs and took jurors to the fenced-off constructing, which stays blood-stained and bullet-pocked. Mother and father and spouses gave tearful and indignant statements about their loss.
In an try to counter that, assistant public defender Melisa McNeill and her workforce have made Cruz’s historical past their case’s centerpiece, hoping at the very least one juror will vote for a life sentence.
After the protection concludes its case within the coming weeks, the prosecution will current a rebuttal case earlier than the jury’s deliberations start.
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