Florida
Parkland school shooter to get life sentence for killing 17
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — A jury spared Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz from the death penalty Thursday for killing 17 people at a Parkland high school in 2017, sending him to prison for the remainder of his life in a decision that left many families of the victims angered, baffled and in tears.
The jury's recommendation came after seven hours of deliberations over two days, ending a three-month trial that included graphic videos, photos and testimony from the massacre and its aftermath, heart-wrenching testimony from victims' family members and a tour of the still blood-spattered building.
Under Florida law, a death sentence requires a unanimous vote on at least one count. Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer will formally issue the life sentences Nov. 1. Relatives, along with the students and teachers Cruz wounded, will be given the opportunity to speak at the sentencing hearing.
Cruz, his hair unkempt, largely sat hunched over and stared at the table as the jury's recommendations were read. Rumblings grew from the family section — packed with about three dozen parents, spouses and other relatives of the victims — as life sentences were announced. Many shook their heads, looked angry or covered their eyes, as the judge spent 50 minutes reading the jury's decision for each victim. Some parents sobbed as they left court.
Cruz, 24, pleaded guilty a year ago to murdering 14 students and three staff members and wounding 17 others on Feb. 14, 2018. Cruz said he chose Valentine's Day to make it impossible for Stoneman Douglas students to celebrate the holiday ever again.
The massacre is the deadliest mass shooting that has ever gone to trial in the U.S. Nine other people in the U.S. who fatally shot at least 17 people died during or immediately after their attacks by suicide or police gunfire. The suspect in the 2019 massacre of 23 at an El Paso, Texas, Walmart is awaiting trial.
Lead prosecutor Mike Satz kept his case simple for the seven-man, five-woman jury. He focused on Cruz's eight months of planning, the seven minutes he stalked the halls of a three-story classroom building, firing 140 shots with an AR-15-style semi-automatic rifle, and his escape.
He played security videos of the shooting and showed gruesome crime scene and autopsy photos. Teachers and students testified about watching others die. He took the jury to the fenced-off building, which remains blood-stained and bullet-pocked. v gave tearful and angry statements.
Cruz's lead attorney Melisa McNeill and her team never questioned the horror he inflicted, but focused on their belief that his birth mother's heavy drinking during pregnancy left him with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder. Their experts said his bizarre, troubling and sometimes violent behavior starting at age 2 was misdiagnosed as attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, meaning he never got the proper treatment. That left his widowed adoptive mother overwhelmed, they said.
The defense cut its case short, calling only about 25 of the 80 witnesses they said would testify. They never brought up Cruz's high school years or called his younger half-brother, Zachary, whom they accused of bullying.
In rebuttal, Satz and his team contended that Cruz did not suffer from fetal alcohol damage but has antisocial personality disorder — in lay terms, he's a sociopath. Their witnesses said Cruz faked brain damage during testing and that he was capable of controlling his actions, but chose not to. For example, they pointed to his employment as a cashier at a discount store where he never had any disciplinary issues.
Prosecutors also played numerous video recordings of Cruz discussing the crime with their mental health experts where he talked about his planning and motivation.
The defense alleged on cross-examination that Cruz was sexually molested and raped by a 12-year-old neighbor when he was 9.
Wiconsin
Medical services company guilty in death of inmate
MILWAUKEE (AP) — The company that provided medical services at a Wisconsin jail has been found guilty in the 2016 dehydration death of an inmate.
Armor Correctional Health Services Inc., based in Miami, was charged in 2018 with felony abuse of residents of a penal facility and seven misdemeanor counts of falsifying health records in the death of 38-year-old Terrill Thomas.
Thomas was arrested in April 2016 after running into the Potawatomi casino in Milwaukee, ordering everyone to get out and then firing two rounds from a handgun. No one was injured. His family said Thomas had likely been experiencing a psychotic episode.
He was placed in isolation in Milwaukee County Jail. Guards cut off his access to water because they said they saw him stuffing his shirt and pieces of mattress into his toilet to flood the cell.
Prosecutors said Armor's employees claimed to have checked on Thomas while he was in isolation, but surveillance video showed them passing his cell "without stopping or never appearing at his cell at all." The charges also allege an Armor employee at one point "fabricated blood pressure and pulse readings" for Thomas.
Thomas died after a week in isolation.
A Milwaukee County Circuit Court jury returned the verdict against the company late Tuesday, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.
Armor's attorney, Patrick J. Knight, said the company would appeal the verdict and several pre-trial rulings.
A sentencing hearing was scheduled for Nov. 16. The company faces fines of up to $190,000.
Three jail officials were also convicted of criminal charges in Thomas' death, including neglect and misconduct.
Misouri
Man who killed 3 because they 'wouldn't leave' pleads guilty
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) — A Missouri man who said he killed his wife and in-laws because they "wouldn't leave" entered a guilty plea Thursday in the case.
Jesse Huy, 50, admitted just before his trial was set to begin to three counts of first-degree murder and three counts of armed criminal action in the deaths of 48-year-old Tonya Huy and her parents, 71-year-old Ronald Koehler and 78-year-old Linda Koehler of Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Investigators say Huy called authorities in March 2021 to report he killed three family members inside his home near the small town of Strafford in southwestern Missouri.
Tonya Huy's parents were visiting to help their daughter after her recent back surgery. Investigators say Jesse Huy shot all three victims in the head and then called authorities after the killings.
Investigators said that when a dispatcher asked why he did it, he responded, "Well, they wouldn't leave. I've been waiting for a week for them to leave. I've had enough."
