![]() ![]() The hearing is expected to deal with several procedural issues possibly including setting an initial trial date and Cruz's public defender possibly ask to waive Florida's speedy trial rule. Standing to the left of Cruz is his attorney Assistant Public Defender Melisa McNeill. In appealing for compassion, Ms McNeill said the defendant continues today to exhibit disturbing obsessions with “video games, guns, exercise, bowel movements, vegan diets and, most recently, demons and Satan”, insisting his behaviour has its roots in his birth mother’s chaotic and criminal lifestyle and that he needs institutional help.Florida school shooting suspect Nikolas Cruz walks back in court in front of The Broward County Public Defender's office urged Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer for a hearing to move forward the death penalty case Friday afternoon, April 27, 2018, in Fort Lauderdale, Fl. That left Cruz an orphan, living with kindly relatives and friends, attending an adult education centre and working at a local branch of Dollar Tree to make ends meet. ![]() However he continued to struggle with behavioural issues and academic issues,” she explained.Ĭruz went on to attend multiple schools, including Marjory Stoneman Douglas, where he had been a member of its air rifle team but compiled a long disciplinary record.Īdding to the instability in his life, his adoptive father Roger passed away from a heart condition in August 2004, aged just 67, and his adoptive mother, Lynda, died at 68 in November 2017, just three months before the high school massacre took place. Having been given up by Woodard, Cruz was adopted by Lynda and Roger in 1998, as was his biological brother Zachary, the couple raising both boys together.īut Cruz began to exhibit signs of disturbing behaviour from the age of three when he first encountered other children, according to Ms McNeill, who said he was subsequently given psychiatric help and diagnosed with antisocial personality disorders. She said that she saw Ms Woodard continue to take drugs, drink alcohol and smoke while pregnant, saying that her onetime friend “didn’t care about anything” other than her addictions. Ms Deakins said that she first met Ms Woodard in the early 90s when they were both working as prostitutes and drank and took drugs including crack cocaine together. One time, she allegedly forced her own mother – Danielle’s grandmother – to strip naked so that she could search her for concealed drug money.ĭanielle and a second defence witness Carolyn Deakins both testified that they saw Woodard take drugs and drink alcohol while pregnant with Cruz. “Nikolas was developing in her polluted womb,” she said.ĭanielle also recounted other experiences with her mother – who she would only refer to as Brenda – including times she smuggled clean urine to pass probation drug tests and fraternised with “junkies”. “She looked at me, and said, ‘I got raped,’ and she took another swig, turned up the radio,” Danielle testified. ![]() She recalled the moment she learned her mother was pregnant with Cruz in 1998, when her mother picked her up in her car in Fort Lauderdale and she spotted her baby bump.
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