FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Prosecutors in the penalty trial of Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz began their rebuttal of the defense case Tuesday by questioning whether his birth mother drank as heavily during pregnancy as some witnesses portrayed.
They also showed his sometimes racist and misogynistic behavior online before he massacred 17 people four years ago at Parkland’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, his online searches for child pornography and the violent writings and drawings found in his jail cell last spring.
Prosecution expert Dr. Charles Scott, a forensic psychiatrist at the University of California, Davis, testified that while defense experts and witnesses have said Cruz’s birth mother, Brenda Woodard, drank fortified wine and malt liquor during pregnancy, he said there is scant evidence supporting that in her medical records.
Not only do those records show she denied drinking after five weeks of pregnancy, there is nothing in Woodard’s doctor examinations or Cruz’s infant medical records that indicate to him she was lying.
The records “raised questions for me what was the reality of the alcohol (abuse),” Scott said. Woodard died last year.
Prosecutors used Scott’s testimony to show the jury swastikas drawn on Cruz’s gun magazine and his boots, his online racism and misogyny and his online searches for child pornography.
They say those details support Scott’s diagnosis that Cruz’s murder of 14 students and three staff members at the high school was driven by antisocial personality disorder — commonly known as being a sociopath. Cruz, 24, pleaded guilty last October to the Feb. 14, 2018, murders — the trial is only to decide whether he is sentenced to death or life without the possibility of parole.
Scott testified that Cruz is capable of controlling his behavior but chooses not to as he has no regard for others, the leading trait of antisocial personality disorder. He also showed video clips from his three days of interviews with Cruz from last March. While defense experts said Cruz has a slightly below average IQ, Cruz engaged Scott in a high-level discussion about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine that had begun just days earlier. Cruz discussed Russian President Vladimir Putin’s goals and history with clarity.
Prior to Scott taking the stand, prosecutors used Broward County sheriff’s investigators and a jail guard to introduce the swastikas that were drawn on the magazine found in Cruz’s AR-15-style…
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