Cruz’s sentence comes more than four years after one of the deadliest high school shooting in U.S. history, where he shot and killed 17 people and injured others at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Valentine’s Day 2018.
A Florida judge has sentenced Parkland school shooter Nikolas Cruz to life in prison Wednesday without the opportunity for parole, according to reports.
Cruz, 24, had been spared the death penalty by a Florida jury last month and his sentence was handed down by Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer Wednesday, according to USA Today.
Cruz’s sentence comes more than four years after one of the deadliest high school shooting in U.S. history, where he shot and killed 17 people and injured others at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Valentine’s Day 2018.
Cruz pleaded guilty last year to premeditated murder before his three-month trial.
The jury’s decision to not evoke the death penalty was met with fury by some of the victims families, according to Reuters.
"How much worse would the crime have to be to warrant the death penalty?" Annika Dworet, the mother of 17-year-old victim Nicholas Dworet told Reuters.
Prior to the judge’s sentencing, families of victims read impact statements over the course of two days to Cruz as he sat in court with a facemask.
Jennifer Guttenberg, mother of Jaime Guttenberg and wife of activist Fred Guttenberg, told him he shouldn't be wearing one when she spoke, according to CBS News.
"It's disrespectful to be hiding your expressions under your mask when we as the families are sitting here talking to you, lowered down in your seat, hunched over, trying to make yourself look innocent when you're not," Guttenberg said.
Teacher Stacy Lippel, who was shot but survived the shooting, lashed out at Cruz when she spoke, according to CBS News.
"The idea that you, a cold-blooded killer, can actually live each day, eat your meals and put your head down at night seems completely unjust," Lippel told him. "The only comfort I have is that your life in prison will be filled with horror and fear, so my hope for you is that you die, sooner rather than later."
