Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / Parkland School Shooter Spared Death Penalty; Attorney Under Investigation After Flashing Middle Finger in Court

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Parkland School Shooter Spared Death Penalty; Attorney Under Investigation After Flashing Middle Finger in Court · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: The families of the victims of the park Land shooting massacre,
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: enraged when the mass killer, Nicholas Cruise does not get
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: the death penalty, speaking out begging for justice. To top
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: it all off, to add insult to injury. Now the
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: court of shame in the last hours, Nicholas Cruise's lawyer
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: investigated for flipping the bird in court, right in front
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: of the victims families. I mean, Nancy Grace, this is
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: crime Stories. Thank you for being with us here at
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: Fox Station and Serious X one eleven. That's right, Tamera Curtis,
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: one of the lead lawyers in the fleet of attorneys
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: defending mass shooter Nicholas Cruise, was actually recorded shooting a
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: bird in court. Listen. A member of Parkland school shooter
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: Nicholas Cruz's defense counsel is under investigation by the Florida
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: State Bar tomorrow. Cruz was caught on camera during a
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: pre trial recess hearing where she appears to flash a
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: bird at the court. In footage, Curtis appears to catch
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: the sight of a courtroom camera and waves. She makes
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: an inaudible comment to a woman sitting next to her.
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: That woman seems to suggest the gesture flashing a brief
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: middle finger herself while looking at Curtis. Curtis then raises
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: her middle finger, looking at the camera, placing it flat
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: against her cheek, then rubs it up and down her cheek.
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: Curtis is laughing and sitting beside a smirking Nicholas Cruise.
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: What prompted the gesture isn't known, but Ed Guttenberg, the
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: father of fourteen year old victim Jamie Gutenberg, has said
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: that the attorney has been frustrated by how the judge
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: was responding to her courtroom arguments. Little is known about
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: when the investigation began, but an investigation has indeed been
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: confirmed by the Florida State Bar. Now, the last time
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: I've actually seen that happen was when Jodi Arias, who
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: was convicted of murdering her lover, Travis Alexander, twenty nine
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: stabs we think. I think there were thirty plus a
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: shot to the head, left to decompose in a damp shower.
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: She shot a bird at me that Arizona courtroom. But
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: an attorney is held to a higher standard than a killer,
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: a convicted killer. An attorney, as the officer of the court,
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: you are bound to at least try to always do
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: the right thing. Now, let me jog your memory. Nicholas
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: Cruz murdered seventeen people and injured seventeen more when he
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: went on a shooting a rampage at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: High in Parkland, Florida. Parents raw with emotion, furious other
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: family members. Not only does Nicholas Cruz escape the death
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: penalty after mass and murder of children, his lawyer is
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: shooting birds in court. Family members call it disgusting and
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: also slammed her for being so chummy with the man
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: who murdered high schoolers. Why because she is recorded on
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: camera joking and laughing in court. Listened to Fred Guttenberg,
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: the father of a fourteen year old victims the defense
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: to be in defense attorney in a situation like this,
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: I get it, you have a job, but it doesn't
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: mean you need to lose your humanity towards the victims,
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: which they did, okay, and they their inability to ever
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: for a second, either in the courtroom or outside of
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: the courtroom, have a human moment with us, a civil
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: moment was despicable. Looking at attorney Tamerack Curtis take her
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: middle finger and rub it up and down her cheek
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: once she lost an argument in the courtroom, and then
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: to start laughing with the killer over it like an immature,
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: punk child. I will never ever ever forgive that moment.
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: But that's who they were. So I will tell you
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: the state did its job. Now, remember, will you try
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: a murder case? The jury and everyone in the courtroom says,
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: on display the dead bodies of the victims, possibly autopsy photos,
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: bloody cloth recordings of parents screaming trying to find their
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: children that day, everyone running around the high school trying
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: to figure out what had happened, and these two are
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: yucking it up in court. And then to top it
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: all off, Tamra Curtis, an officer of the court on
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: the defense team, shoots a bird. Now, the defense team
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: actually complained they were being unfairly attacked by the victims families.
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: That prompted the judge, Thank Heavens got a smart judge,
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: Judge Elizabeth Sherer, to defend the victims families. What you
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: are doing right now is highlighting something and making more
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: of a spectacle. So if your office in general does
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: not want to facilitate any or incite violence, then we
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: need to just sit down and move on. That's it.
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: There were eighteen witnesses. Sixteen or eighteen witnesses are testified today.
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: There was nothing that was said until miss McNeil made
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: her point me and you know we're moving on to
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: anything about stains. When these people are upset about specific
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: things that have gone on from that table, like shooting
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: the middle finger up at this court and laughing and joking,
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: Miss McNeil, be quiet. When these people have set in
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: this courtroom and watched this behavior from that table and
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: they want to say that they're not happy about it.
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: What is the problem. How did the jury end up
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: letting this guy who murdered so many children escape the
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: death penalty? The jury said it could not unanimously agree
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: Chris should be executed, and that's kind of a default
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: in our law. Let you win by default. If they
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: can't agree on the death penalty, it defaults to life
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: behind bars again. I mean, I see, Grace, this is
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: crime Stories. Thanks for being with us here at Flex
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: Nation in serious XM one eleven. How did the whole
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: thing begin? My thigh is in filming Dogess High School.
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: He said he heard noises in top and he thinks
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: there they're shooting going on at the school. Police. Okay,
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: we do have police on senninee. What is your emergency?
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: I think I hear gunshots? When is the ads S?
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: I don't know. I'm at the in parkmoud O Isisles.
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: It sounds like it's over Tooyage of High School or
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: George Douglas underbring gunshots maybe fifteen minutes ago. So then
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: I just heard four or five right in a row
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: just a few minutes ago. Let you don't want to
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: hear a nine one one call about gunshots near a
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: high school. Listen nine one one? What is your emergency? More?
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: Such a sting, Douglas, So we're shooting up the school
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: at I'm sorry, I can't hear you. What's happening? So
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: one is doing wood Hello, Hello, Hello, A couple of
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: high schools is being shot up? Are you at the school?
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: I can't hear you. Are you at the school? To
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: NIM one one call or trying to whisper into the
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: phone that the school is being shot up and then
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: hangs up, joining me an all star panel. At first,
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: I want to go to David Vae, crime reporter in Miami.
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: Harold David, thank you for being with us. Why was
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: the nine one caller whispering? Well, the name one one
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: caller was whispering because there was a shooter inside that
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: was shooting up the school. And of course, you know,
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: and just like we saw a new bal day in
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: other places where we have people who are desperately calling
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: NIM one one from inside the premises on these school shootings.
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: So that nine one caller is actually inside Marjorie's time
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: and while trying to call nine one one, and he's
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: trying to whisper so the shooter doesn't see him. He's
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: trying to not attract the shooter's attention. Yes, and you know,
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: this was obviously a huge stunning event for a lot
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: of the students that were there. So there was a
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: lot of confusion about where where the shooter was, where,
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: um you know what, when help was coming, whether you know,
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: whether there was more than one shooter right, So there
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: was a lot of confusion, So that's why they hence
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: the whispering. Take a listen now to our friends at ABC.
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: At two of the afternoon, gunshots ring out in the
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: South Borda High school, Terrified students hiding in classrooms during
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: the gunman's rampage. Oh my god. The shooter reportedly first
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: pulled a fire alarm to get more students out of
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: the classroom, maximizing potential victims. As soon as the fire
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: joke got pulled, the firelarm got pulled and kids were evacuating.
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: I heard five pops. He was just very focused, going
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: to focused on what he was doing. Let's yeah. I
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: was in the classroom and all of our air was shocked,
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: and I was just like, oh my gosh, I'll tapmaning
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: and we're just sitting on the floor and we're just
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: panicking crime stories with Nancy Grace. How did the jury
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: end up letting this guy who murdered so many children
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: escape the death penalty? The jury said it could not
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: unanimously agree Cruise should be executed, and that's kind of
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: a default in our law. Let you win by default.
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: If they can't agree on the death penalty, it defaults
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: to life behind bars. Take a listen to our friends
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: at ABC, Ladies and gentlemen, it's my understanding that you
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: have reached a verdict in this case. Nicholas Cruz spared
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: the death penalty. A Florida jury instead recommending the Parkland
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: gunman spend the rest of his life in prison without
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: the possibility of parole. One by one, the judge reading
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: the jury sentencing recommendation for each of the seventeen victims,
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: many of the families angry and stunned, some walking out.
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: But it says to me, what it says to my family,
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: what it says to the other families, is that his
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: life meant more than the seventeen that were murdered. The
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: jury's foreman says three voted against it. Prosecutors argued Cruz
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: was a sociopath and that the massacre was premeditated. In
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: the end, the defense appears to have convinced at least
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: some jurors that Cruz was mentally ill after his mother's
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: drug abuse and drinking while pregnant. The evidence this jury
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: hearn in this court heard, and the spectator's hearn is
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: just beyond your worst nightmares. Speaking of the evidence, our
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: friends at ABC the juries, seeing graphic security footage showing
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: victims shot multiple times at point blank range, fucking Oliver
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: also shot in the head. Did fucking get justice today? No?
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: He did not. He did not. The only one who
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: got the way to get out of this was the
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: defendant dening Julia five. I have the gunshot victor. I
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: have the gunshot victim by the by the entrance the
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: west glade on the west side of the school, or
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: acting out a pipe. And what I am we don't know.
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: I am the thirteen building. Building thirteen will form a
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: copper entergy? Did anybody have both? Card? I can get this,
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: get out of the friend. He's fucking a friend. I
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: eat both with me now. Michelle, Michelle did Meyer, who
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: was barricaded trying to save her own life inside the school. Michelle,
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: what happened? So we are in class, there was about
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: like twenty minutes left in school, and the fire's alarm
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: went off and we're all thinking, like, what is happening
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: because we had a fire drill earlier today And in
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: my class, like the students are trying to convince my
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: teacher that we don't have to go because schools ending students,
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: but she said, no, it's an emergency, we have to go.
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: And if that student didn't try and convince my teacher,
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: I probably would have ran towards the area where the
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: shooter was because that's where my evacuation zone is. But
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: since there was a little later, there's a security guard
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: downstairs telling us to run the other way. At that moment,
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: I still thought it was a fire drill, so I
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: then atoms the red gates at them. Our assistant principal
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: told me to come back inside and go in the auditorium,
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: and as I'm walking in, my aunt calls me because
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: my uncle is an emergency personnel, so he knew the
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: news right away, and they let me know what was happening.
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: Every single person around me, including the teachers, thought it
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: was an active shooter drill because they were told we
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: were going to have one soon, just so we kind
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: of know what to do in that situation. And I
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: was the only person there who knew that it was
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: not a drill, and I how to tell everybody know,
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: like let everybody know to like tell their family members
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: they love them, because there is a shooter. It's real.
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: And in a minute, Michelle, so you find out because
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: you have a relative in law enforcement or emergency personnel,
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: and you start telling everybody, guys, this is real, what
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: was happening around you, what was everybody doing, and saying
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: everybody was just like acting calm, like it wasn't serious.
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: Then they were telling everybody, like even the teachers were saying,
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: like it's just a drill, like remaining calm, And I
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: had to tell a teacher, I'm like, it's not real.
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: My aunt just called me and let me know what
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: was happening, and you know, we just need to stop
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: speaking and get down and like quiet so that way
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: he doesn't know that we're in here. And I it
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: broke my heart having to tell all these people that
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: it was on campus, like I was the one who
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: had to do it, and I just just sat there
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: on the auditor and splore shaking for the whole entire
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: two hours that I was there. When did you hear?
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: What could you hear? In the background, there was a
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: security guard in our room, so he was like giving
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: us updates about what's happening, and like there's just a
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: bunch of cops outside and they would come in and
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: scream at us to get down because some students weren't,
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: and then cops came in to search behind the stage.
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: And it was just all very scary of everything that
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: was happening. So you were lying, you were lying on
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: the floor. How were you barricaded? Yeah, like we were
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: in between the seats of the auditorium on the floor.
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: Take a listen sound of the shooting. Joining me right now,
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: John Limley, Crime Stories, investigative reporter, John. What do we
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: know about the shooter? Nicholas Cruise? He had been expelled
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: from Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School, which is a small
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: little city about an hour north of Miami. For months.
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: Students teachers had been told that if he was to
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: enter the campus, step foot on the campus, especially with
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: a backpack, that students teachers were to immediately alert security
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: because he had been posting for quite some time, especially
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: on Instagram, photos of this arsenal of weapons he had
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: at seventeen, these posts about how he was going to
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: take down law enforcement, how he was going to shoot
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: up the school, and as we now know, that is
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: exactly what he did. I don't understand this how everybody
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: at school knew about a teen boy having an arsenal
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: and posting about shooting up the school, but the parents
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: didn't know. And another thing I don't understand, Joining me
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: is Wendy Patrick, California Prosecutor. If the school knew about it,
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: how come the parents didn't know about it? You know,
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: what if I had a gun in this house, it
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: would be out in the trash jump pronto. How did
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: they not know about it? If the school knew about it?
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: And another thing, Wendy Patrick, when you post photos and
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: threats about blowing up the school, that is what we
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: call in the law a terroristic threat, and that is
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: a felony. Why was this kid just walking free making
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: all these threats? Wendy. Yeah. One of the things Nancy,
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: you and I know from our careers is it is
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: tricky when you talk about how to analyze things that
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: are posted online and distinguishing between free speech that is
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: completely offensive and crime threatening crime, something that's actionable, something
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: that can be acted upon. You know. The problem One
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: of the problems I should say with cases like this is,
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: first of all, we have to assume people saw what
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: was being posted online, because, let's face it, that's wait
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: a minute, wait, wait wait, Wendy, we just heard that
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: from Limley that the school was already on alert if
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: they saw the guy come on campus, So they knew, right,
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: But that's only the first step. Secondly, they've got to
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: analyze whether or not it's something they can go arrest
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: somebody for. So it sounds like it's stalled with the
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: first step. People saw this, they knew about it, they
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: knew that he was a threat, and they actually worked administratively.
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: The question now is was there sufficient evidence? And we're
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: now seeing it, We're going to be seeing more of
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: it to actually decide, well, this is something we can
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: charge criminally and then we'll be able to arrest him,
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: we can get restraining order. So it seems like it's
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: stalled between steps one and did it? And when I
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: hear stall, that's the worst thing you want to hear
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: with me is Michelle Ditmeyer, who actually a team girl
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: who had to barricade herself to Michelle Ditmyer also joining
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: me her friend Sarah Derby. Michelle, did you know this
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: guy or know of him? I have seen him around
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: school before, but he got expelled before I was in
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: the school for a long amount of time. But everybody
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: like at the school would call him and like just
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: kind of knew he was free being psychotic, I mean,
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: mass kill or Nicholas Cruise does not get the death penalty.
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: To top it all off, to add insult to injury. Now,
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: in the last hours, Nicholas Cruz's lawyer investigated for flipping
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: the bird in court. She should have been held in
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: contempt immediately. How did he get to that? Why wasn't
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: she held in contempt? Now she's being investigated by the
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: Florida Bar. I don't know what they're going to do
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: with her. One father, Fred Guttenberg, the father of a
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: fourteen year old victim, Jamie Guttenberg, says he will never
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: ever forgive the moment that attorney Curtis laughed with Cruz
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: in court, laughing, likening her behavior to quote an immature
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: punk child. Another parent of a victim accused Cruiz's defense
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: team of quote losing their humanity toward the victims last month.
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: It's just it's so painful in court. I mean, I've
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: been there so many times. It's so painful what the victims'
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: families are going through. I know I went through it
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: myself in court as the family of a loved one
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: that had been murdered. You're raw, you're upset, can't think straight.
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: And then deceive the defense attorneys shooting birds seemingly at
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: the victim's family and then laughing about it like Beavis
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: and butthead. It's so painful in court. Listen on the
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: day of the medical examra of visits where they discussed Jamie.
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: I need you all to know because this who gets
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: back to the word indoor, what we endure that while
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: I was sitting there, I was having chest paints and
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: shortness of breath. And you want to know, I didn't
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: say a word because I didn't want to hear you
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: called to the judge because it happened in front of
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: the jury and asked for a mistrial if I sat
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: there with chest paints and the second the public I'm sorry.
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: The second the medical exam or finished talking about my daughter,
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: my wife immediately got me out of the rule and
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: I ended up with weeks of testing from a cardiologist
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: and thankfully I am okay of a broken heart. But
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: I am okay. You don't know me, but you tried
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: to kill me. I will have a scar on my
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: arm and the memory of you quainting your gun at
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: me ingrained in my brain forever. The Florida Supreme Court
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: should look at the law that was changed in twenty
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: sixteen that allows the minority rule in the case of
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: a death sentence verdict. If killing seventeen innocent people and
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: wounding seventeen more does not warrant the death penalty, and
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: what possibly does I hope you're ever breathing moment here
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: on earth is miserable and you repent for your sins.
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: Nicholas and burning Hell. Christopher Brent Hickson was an extraordinary man.
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: He was a father, He was a husband, He was
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: a son, a brother, an uncle, a cousin, a godfather,
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: and friend so many. He was stolen from us by
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: an unimaginable act that you plans and executed. You stole
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: him from us, and you did not receive the justice
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: that you deserved. The evidence this jury heard, in this court,
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: heard the spectators heard, is just beyond your worst nightmares.
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: We understand that a math teacher, Jim Guard, who taught crews, says, quote,
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: we were told he was not allowed on campus with
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: a backpack. There were problems with him threatening students. He
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: was asked to leave campus. Apparently he had been suspended.
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: You know, other students claim quote, I knew it was
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: going to be him. To dodger Bethany Marshall, LA psychoanalysts
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: joining us. You know, I've had so many victims say
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: I knew this was going to happen. I talked about
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: it We knew this was going to happen. Everybody knew, Bethany,
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: I find it very difficult to believe this guy was
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: not already behind bars. I don't care if he's just
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: a team. All of these school shooters, in fact, math
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: shooters in general, always break about it to somebody. They
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: write a letter, they post online, they have pictures of
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: themselves on Instagram and Facebook. They their own crimes. So
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: these do not come from out of the blue. It's
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: very easy to tell who is going to become a
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: mass shooter because they do not keep it to themselves.
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: Even though often there are loaners. They do share their
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: thoughts and so the idea that somebody just snaps, or
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: you know, all of a sudden they just go crazy
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: and grab a bunch of guns is not a very
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: sound way to think about all of this. They contemplate
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: it unconsciously and consciously for months, if not years. Look,
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: I'm not looking for anybody to blame. That's not what
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: I'm about. I'm trying to figure out why this happened,
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: what could have been done to prevent it so it
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: won't happen again. And to me, they're all the signs.
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: Vincent Hill Priba, an investigator joining me. I mean online,
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: this guy shared photos of him brutal animals. He literally
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: had posted on Instagram pictures of animals he killed gruesomely.
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: He physically assaulted other students, and from what I'm understanding,
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: Vincent made threats on the school. I mean, when you
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: tell a kid you can't come on the school with
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: a backpack, it's because you think they've got a gun
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: in it. Yeah. Absolutely, Nancy, and I think Wendy touched
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: on this. You have to question what you can make
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: a rest for what you can investigate on social media
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: because people live bicariously through social media. But I think
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: there's a much bigger issue that no one's touching on. Yes,
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: the school was unnoticed. Yes the school said he can't
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: come on with the backpack. But you're talking about a
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: very large structure that holds about thirty two hundred people.
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: With two school resource officers, that is a lot of
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: ground to cover, a lot of bodies to watch to
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: try to prevent one person from getting onto that school.
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: So we need to start talking about how do we
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: secure our schools or to prevent this, or if it
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: does start to happen, how do we make it go
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: away a lot faster, you know, and more oafuly with
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: less lives taken. Also with me, in addition to Michelle Dittmyer,
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: who had to barricade herself in the school as the
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: shots rang out, is Sarah Derby her friend Michelle, What
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: was going through your mind as you're in there barricaded,
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: knowing there's a shooter stalking the campus opening fire right
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: right at that moment, right, my mind was blank. I
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: just was thinking about all my family members. I was
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: trying to not let my grandma in New York know,
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: but the news reached there. I just I didn't want
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: my family members to worry about me, even though they would,
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: And honestly, that's all I was thinking about with all
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: the people outside of that school, that I might never
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: see you again. Can you even imagine the desperate parents
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: of these students still in lockdown, rushing to the scene
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: to find out if your child is one that was
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: shot dead. I can barely even put words to it.
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: Sarah Derby, what is your recollection of what happened? Dear
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: to like disgusted it. I was driving home and we
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: got a call and I said, someone, there's been a
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: shooting at Stoneman. So I automatically get on the phone
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: to call Michelle because we've been texting five minutes before
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: any of this happened, like we've been we were in
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: contact all day. And she didn't answer, and I was like, Okay,
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: maybe her phone's dead because the phone's never charged. I
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: was going through these things and I called by the
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: phone Samantha, and she said, no, this is this is real,
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: this is happening. And my first instinct was truly like
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: I started like had booking at home, Like I was like,
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: I have to get home. I have to get home,
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: like this is I have to do something. And it's
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: just like this hottest feeling of like both like discussed
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: and just like anger that like someone like I knows
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: multip people, I know this clothes, how to deal with
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: something that, like you said, who senior year is not
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: going to be the same. That's why I thought it
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: was like now who Sheenias just to close someone that
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: she survived in that shooting, which should never have happened.
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace seventeen dead when a teen
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: boy opens fire with a semi automatic rifle at a Parkland,
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: Florida high school, fourteen others wounded. The teen boy, Nicholas Cruise,
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: concealed himself in a crowd fleeing Marjorie Stone and Douglas
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: High School. He clearly had planned this, even wearing a
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: gas mask to cover his face when he went in.
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: Can you imagine your child sitting at school looking up
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: and seeing a man with a gas mask covering his
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: face wielding a semi automatic weapon. He took uber to campus.
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: That's how we know how he got there. Seventeen dead,
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: fourteen wounded for this guy wielding an a R fifteen
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: semi automatic. On YouTube, he says, I'm going to be
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: a professional school shooter. I'm going to be a professional
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: school shooter. Insult heaped on injury. That's what we have here.
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: Not only does Nicholas Cruz escape the death penalty after
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: mass and murder of children, his lawyer is shooting birds
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: in court. Family members call it disgusting and also slammed
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: her for being so chummy with the man who murdered
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: high schoolers. Why because she has recorded on camera joking
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: and laughing in court. These families dealing with the loss
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: of their children and others now have to have Nicholas
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: Cruz's lawyer, Shooter Bird in court. Really after hearing painful
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: testimony and the graphic nature of that testimony, Nancy started
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: on day one, take a listen to this from our
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: friends at WPBF. Prosecutors opened this trial by promising the
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: jury they would show Nicholas Cruz planned this attack, wanted
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: to kill students, quoting Cruise from a video Cruise made
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: three days before the massacre, Oh my name is Nick.
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: I'm going to be the next school shooter of two
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: and eighteen. The jury then heard from three witnesses, a
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: teacher and two students. All were in three different classrooms
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: when crews opened fire. I heard what I described is
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: just allow this noise. You could possibly imagine. We were
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: just sitting kind of like sitting ducks. We had no
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: way to protect ourselves, no way to stand up for ourselves. Eventually,
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: the shooters started shooting through the window and boots were
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: flying through. Almost instantly, I called nine one one, just
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: out of instinct. They couldn't hear me over the sound
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: of the gunshots. I looked over and to be bored dead.
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: And most of the people were shot. But the most
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: emotional part of the day came when prosecutors played two
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: videos of the shooting, the most graphic parts where you
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: hear gunshots and hear students screaming and calling for help.
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: During that part, many family members were sobbing in the gallery.
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: A few had to walk out. Crews sat with his
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: head in his hands as he watched and listened to
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: himself shoot thirty four people, killing seventeen. Among other things
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: that jurors heard was testimony about how Nicholas Crews pulled
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: the fire alarm to send students out into the hallway
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: and his firing. David Kat's CEO of Global Security Group,
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: what does that mean to you, David? Well, you know,
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: there's there's a lot of things that we just mentioned too.
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: There's one of the things going back to the same
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: room multiple times that happened to Vision to Tech, so
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: that's not uncommon. The you know, a bunch of things
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: that that stand out. Number one, as a former student,
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: he knew how to gain access to the building. Number two,
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: he knew that by pulling the fire along, he knew
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: exactly the response. Number Three, he knew that there is
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: a protocol in place that probably he was able to
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: exploit because of his knowledge of their procedures and able
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: to and able to gain access to potential victims before
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: they could react. You know, there's a there's a bunch
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: of things that that I mean here in New York City,
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: for example, the NYPD to Fire Department, they've mandated actor
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: shooter response and high rise buildings in in public assembly
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: venues and hotels. In addition, there are school mandates and
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: everything that we teach, every bit of the curriculum is
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: exactly diametrically opposed to what was done in this case.
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: To John Limley, I'm reading about all the acts of heroism.
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: One coach dies trying to save other people. One math teacher,
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: a Miss Shanty Viswanaphone known as Miss V to her students.
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: When she heard a second fire alarm that day, she
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: knew something was wrong. They had had a fire drill
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: earlier that morning. Instead of letting her students out of algebra,
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: she made them all get down on the floor in
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: the corner of the room, put paper over the windows
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: so nobody could see in. She wouldn't even let the
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: swat team in. John, they had to come in through
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: the windows because she would not let them in. She
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: didn't know for sure it was a swat team for
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: real John exactly and another teacher, Scott Bigel, a geography teacher,
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: was killed as he was trying to usher students back
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: into his classroom when the shooting broke out. One of
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: the students told CNN that he was shot outside the
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: classroom door, right after he locked all of the students in.
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: It's stories like this that make all of this all
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: the more heartbreaking. Killer Nicholas Cruz does not get the
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: death penalty. Insult heaped on injury. That's what we have here,
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: with evidence like what that jury heard, what spectators heard,
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: what the court heard. How can a veteran defense attorney,
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: lawyer Tamer Curtis shoot a bird? How can they sit
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: there and laugh as court is. It's it's just so callous,
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: so disheartening to see a member of the bar carry
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: on like this. It's so painful. The families of the
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: victims of the park Land shooting massacre enraged when the
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: mass killer, Nicholas Cruise does not get the death penalty.
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: Take a listen to our friends at NBC. I thought
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: that the devil did not assist until death. Puddh us
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: in front in this all day the pain poured out.
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: You are a revolting entity. Parents, family members, survivors, speaking
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: without restrictions on time or subject directly to the man
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: who killed their loved ones. I wish no peace for you.
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: I wish nothing but pain. I am disappointed and disgusted
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: with the verdict that was handed to you. You do
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: not deserve the best case scenario. The deadliest mass shooting
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: in US history to reach trial ended without a death
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: penalty verdict because there wasn't a unanimous decision, as Florida requires.
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: My brother Chris, on February fourteenth, died a hero. You, however,
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: you will die as nothing because you are nothing. Ultimately,
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: those here left with one simple feeling, emptiness. I am groken.
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: I am broken, and I am broken. Some parents using
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: the time to lambast the defense, which they say misrepresented
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: the killer's lack of access to mental healthcare. This individual
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: didn't fall off the grid. He was the grid. He
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: was getting every service that they offered that total hundreds
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: of hours of therapy. Salt poured in the wound. These families,
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: dealing with the loss of their children and others, now
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: have to have Nicholas Cruz's lawyer, Shooter Bird in court
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: really The defense action of seeming to throw a middle
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: finger at the court had parents reacting, including Manuel Oliver,
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: father a victim, Joaquin Oliver. Four times you blew his head.
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: He's marvelous brain and ideas and dreams to destroy them.
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: Shut him four times you needed any or fifteen to
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: do that, because soliwise quinbu have been in this of you,
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: so you were a coward enough and you can't be
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: cowards in his life, hiding your actions at the middle
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: finger day apologizing put a middle finger. You need to
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: be learned how to do a middle finger, so you
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: don't need to apologize to anyone. At this point, Oliver
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: can be seen giving his own demonstration of flipping the bird.
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: If this lawyer is not remprimanded or thrown out of
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: the bar entirely, it will be a travesty at a
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: moment like this and these victims family's lives, to see
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: her shooting a bird and yucking it up in court
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: with the killer is just beyond the panel. We wait
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: as justice unfolds. Nancy Grace grim Story signing off Goodbye friend,