Did the judge mention anything about the assault on the jail guard for which he previously received 26 years?

Sentence:

34 consecutive life sentences, most without parole. Some of the attempted murder counts did not have the elements necessary for automatic life under the statute so she set a few of the counts at 20 years to life.

He is to pay all court costs, costs of prosecution, costs of defense, costs of security, and restitution to families out of his commissary. So he's not getting commissary for the rest of his life.

No

I thought all life sentences in Florida are without parole. That's what the judge told him when he pled guilty.

"Real justice would be done if every family here were given a bullet and your AR-15 and we got to pick straws, and each one of us got to shoot one at a time at you, making sure that you felt every bit of it, and your fear continued to mount until the last family member who pulled that last straw had the privilege of making sure that they killed you," Beigel Schulman said. "That's real justice for you."

The judge also ordered him to never be able to profit from his crimes.

lethalninja said:

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I thought all life sentences in Florida are without parole. That's what the judge told him when he pled guilty.

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The attempted murder charge is not mandatory life without parole in Florida. Mandatory of 20 years if firearm used, mandatory 25 to life without parole if serious bodily injury occurred via firearm during an attempted murder.

The few 20 year sentences were apparently for people he shot at and missed.

You said he received 34 consecutive life sentences, most without parole, but Florida doesn't have parole for any life sentences, so how could he be eligible for parole on some of the life sentences?

All of the attempted murder charges were for victims that he shot, but the minimum is twenty years if there's no serious bodily injury. I don't think he was charged for any of the victims he shot at and missed.

Defense counsel flipping the bird in open court (towards the judge?) is a nice touch.

I saw something on Reddit about one of the victims' family members flipping off Nikolas Cruz and one of his lawyers. Did that actually happen?

lethalninja said:

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I saw something on Reddit about one of the victims' family members flipping off Nikolas Cruz and one of his lawyers. Did that actually happen?

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Don't know . I didn't see it but I didn't watch a ton of this. Went on forever.

Yes

What reason did they give for doing it?

Private PoopyPants said:

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She just finished. She never mentioned her brother. She never talked about the victim in what is supposed to be a victim impact statement. This has turned into a kangaroo court of people using the platform to rail against a public defender's office. This should not be allowed.

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They made victim impact statements during the trial. These statements were to address the sentence.

His kid got his head blown up.

I also don't understand why Cruz needed all of those PDs during this phase. Hell, any of the phases. It never went to trial. He pled guilty. Then there was the month+ victim impact statements.

Why did all of those PDs need to be in court? For what purpose? No one else needed their services?

Were I an affected person from that tragedy I'd be wondering about that. Tax payer money being wasted, if you ask me. Get paid to do nothing other be snarky and insulting.

They were trying to get him life without parole instead of the death penalty, since the prosecutor refused to accept his offer of pleading guilty in exchange for 34 consecutive life sentences, so he pled guilty without an agreement.

lethalninja said:

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They were trying to get him life without parole instead of the death penalty, since the prosecutor refused to accept his offer of pleading guilty in exchange for 34 consecutive life sentences, so he pled guilty without an agreement.

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By doing what in court? Flipping the bird to the judge? Making jokes with Cruz? Getting all whiny with the judge and defying her orders?

Not the best approach.

They could have been more professional, but they still did a good job defending him, since they were able to get him life without parole instead of the death penalty, even though he killed seventeen people.

lethalninja said:

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They could have been more professional, but they still did a good job defending him, since they were able to get him life without parole instead of the death penalty, even though he killed seventeen people.

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And you know what? That was their sole job. But taking a victory lap and spiking the football over it was a bit much. And if Cruz had been just a wee bit older when he did this and the jury not tainted it would have been for aught.

Again, that job did not require the services of that many PDs. Two, three at most.

Let me put this another way. Do you think the SF public defender's office will send six or more PDs to defend Depape in the Pelosi case? I don't.

This was the deadliest mass shooting to go to trial in the United States, so it's not unreasonable for him to have a team of lawyers for a case of this magnitude. There were a similar number of lawyers for the state.

lethalninja said:

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This was the deadliest mass shooting to go to trial in the United States, so it's not unreasonable for him to have a team of lawyers for a case of this magnitude. There were a similar number of lawyers for the state.

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I missed the trial, apparently. I was under the impression he pled guilty.

Are you saying he never pled guilty and had a full blown criminal trial?

He pled guilty, but it was a trial to determine what his sentence would be. In death penalty cases, the sentencing trials are usually longer than the guilt/innocence trial. Everything from jury selection in April until the jury recommended life three weeks ago was to decide whether he would get the death penalty or life without parole.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9902827/Parkland-shooter-Nikolas-Cruzs-career-criminal-sister-faces-LIFE-prison.html

His sister is facing life without parole next

Just rewatched the argument with the attorney yesterday and then with the Chief PD. I didn't see the entire exchange until now. The judge misrepresented what the attorney said and then went on a ridiculous whiney tirade about it. This was after a victim's mother repeated wished "karma" on the entire defense team and their children.

Nikolas Cruz is the worst convicted murderer in Florida (based on the number of victims) and he didn't get the death penalty, which is surprising.

Wake me when this mother****er has his ***** and testes cut off before his very eyes before he is shanked and left on the floor of a cold prison while he bleeds to death...

Justice was not served here...

Private PoopyPants said:

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Just rewatched the argument with the attorney yesterday and then with the Chief PD. I didn't see the entire exchange until now. The judge misrepresented what the attorney said and then went on a ridiculous whiney tirade about it. This was after a victim's mother repeated wished "karma" on the entire defense team and their children.

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So?

PDs get a bad rap. But that is their job. If they are thin skinned that a parent who lost their child can't vent and understand that, they are in the wrong job.

A PD who argues with a judge and says in front of the families, "Your honor! You don't know what WE have been through!" painting the PDs' office as the freakin' victim here? Really?

They were probably referring to threats they got from the public for defending him. It was still tone deaf of them to say that in front of the families, though.

lethalninja said:

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They were probably referring to threats they got from the public for defending him. It was still tone deaf of them to say that in front of the families, though.

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I fully understand that. And those are addressed in camera with the judge and extra security being assigned.

When the one PD asked for a sidebar, she denied it. That was likely a bad call on her part unless the PD had already given a note to the bailiff to give her about new credible threats and she had dismissed it.

That is about the only scenario in which I could see the upper echelons of the PD office melting down for a legit reason.

Otherwise, just business as usual.

I'm bumping this thread one final time. Just pointing out what the judge did after the trial. She left the bench and went down to hug the prosecutors.

And that's wrong because?

If you're trying to convey an air of impartiality, hugging the prosecution team looks really, really improper.

Sentence him to death. Dude said a demon was talking to him; plenty more of those where he's going.