![]() ![]() ![]() She served a variety of prison sentences over those decades, including one 18-month stretch for car theft and fleeing from a law enforcement officer. ![]() Nikolas Cruz had numerous behavioral and learning problems throughout his life, along with a fascination with guns and his own problems with alcohol and drug abuse.Ĭourt and prison records show that Woodard was arrested more than two dozen times from the 1980s through the 2000s for crimes including drug offenses, car theft, weapons possession, burglary, domestic violence and battery charges. Roger Cruz died when Nikolas Cruz was a young child and Lynda Cruz died last November, just a few months before the Parkland shooting. If the case goes to the death penalty phase, all 12 jurors must agree on capital punishment or Cruz will get an automatic life prison sentence.Ĭruz and his brother, Zachary, were both adopted by Roger and Lynda Cruz soon after Woodard gave birth to them. "Maybe it will curtail some of the pain and hurt that certainly will happen if this case continues on a decades-long march to death." Throw away the key and never speak his name," Finkelstein said in an email. But he repeated that Cruz is ready to end it now. His lawyers say he will plead guilty if spared the death penalty, but prosecutors have refused that offer.īroward County Public Defender Howard Finkelstein declined Wednesday to discuss how Woodard's past might become part of the case. 14 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. "We are looking heavily at his background and his whole life."Ĭruz, 19, is charged with 17 counts of murder and 17 counts of attempted murder in the Feb. "If information has come to light about his biological mother and there is some relevance there, of course we will take a look at it," Gualtieri said. Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri, the chairman of a state commission investigating the shooting separate from the prosecution, said Wednesday that all of Cruz's background is relevant. The American Bar Association guidelines for defense lawyers in death penalty cases say they should closely examine all the defendant's past family, going back at least three generations. The identity of Woodard, first reported Wednesday by the Miami Herald, was confirmed to the Associated Press by a person close to the case who spoke on condition of anonymity because it is an ongoing prosecution. "It might not carry the day, but it will give the jurors another mitigating factor to consider," he added. "Her use of drugs and alcohol while she was pregnant with him, and how her genetic makeup was passed on to him." Weinstein, a former state and federal prosecutor now in private practice. "It is not necessarily her past, but how her past contributed to his genetic makeup," said David S. But her past, which included a crack cocaine purchase arrest while she was pregnant with Cruz, will almost certainly be brought up for a jury considering whether he should live or die. The mother, 62-year-old Brenda Woodard, played no role in Cruz's upbringing after giving him up for adoption after he was born. Jail records didn't immediately list an attorney for Zachary Cruz.FORT LAUDERDALE – The extensive criminal and drug abuse history of Parkland school suspect Nikolas Cruz's biological mother could be a key factor in whether he sentenced to die for the massacre that killed 17 people, legal experts and officials say. Such a commitment would have made it more difficult, if not impossible, for Cruz to have legally obtained a gun such as the AR-15 assault-style rifle used in the shooting. The Associated Press reported Sunday that documents show some officials recommended in September 2016 that Nikolas Cruz be involuntarily committed for a mental evaluation, though the recommendation was never acted upon. The youth's brother, 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz, has been charged with 17 counts of first-degree murder in connection with the Feb. It added that the teen had "surpassed all locked doors and gates and proceeded to ride his skateboard through school grounds." Zachary Cruz told the arresting deputy that he was there to "reflect on the school shooting and to soak it in," according to the report. though he had received prior warnings from school officials to stay away from the campus, the report said. The teen was recorded by security cameras riding his skateboard at the school around 4:30 p.m. ![]() Zachary Cruz, 18, was arrested at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and charged with trespassing on school grounds, a Broward Sheriff's Office report said. MIAMI - The brother of the teen charged with killing 17 people at a Florida school was arrested Monday afternoon for trespassing at the same school, authorities said. ![]()
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