![]() The boys’ birth mother was Brenda Woodard who, at the time of her pregnancy with Cruz, was homeless, an alcoholic, a drug addict and working as a prostitute. Zachary has the same biological mother as Cruz and was also adopted by Lynda and Roger Cruz. Here’s what we know about Cruz’s younger brother: Early life While the trial is casting more of a spotlight on Cruz and his actions leading up to the mass shooting, Zachary also hit headlines in the aftermath of the attack. On Valentine’s Day 2018, Cruz took an Uber to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, armed with an AR-15 style rifle and gunned down students and staff.įourteen students and three educators were killed in the massacre. Zacharay, who is 14 months younger than his 23-year-old murderer brother, has stood by Cruz ever since he carried out one of the deadliest school shootings in US history. ![]() Zachary Cruz, 22, is expected to testify for the defence in Cruz’s sentencing trial, where a jury will decide whether to give him to life in prison without the possibility of parole or the death penalty. He had been assigned to special education since kindergarten after being diagnosed with emotional and developmental problems and a speech disability.The brother of Parkland mass shooter Nikolas Cruz is believed to be starring in a reality show about his life and was previously charged with trespassing at the school where his brother murdered 17 innocent people. ![]() “He couldn’t stand up for himself,” Rodriguez said. Lynn Rodriguez said that when she taught Cruz in 20, he had difficulty staying on task and was “very small” for his age, leading to him being bullied at school, on the bus and by his younger brother at home. Lynda Cruz died of pneumonia four months before the shootings.īefore Browd’s testimony was played, his third and fourth grade special education teacher testified that he was a sad and sometimes violent and disruptive student who didn’t make friends with his classmates. So after three weeks, Lynda Cruz traded in the BMW for another van, Browd said. For example, Lynda and Roger Cruz traded in the family’s van for a BMW SUV when their oldest son was 4, but he didn’t like it because he couldn’t stand up and move like he could in the van. She said his mother didn’t set boundaries for him. ![]() Trying to overcome the emotional, gruesome and graphic evidence and testimony the prosecution presented over three weeks as it laid out the killings, the defense has spent the first five days of its case trying to show that from the time he was conceived in the womb of a crack-smoking, hard-drinking prostitute he was put on a road that created a killer. For the former Stoneman Douglas student to received a death sentence, the jury must be unanimous. A seven-man, five-woman jury will decide whether he is sentenced to death or life without parole. Ĭruz, 23, pleaded guilty in October to murdering 14 students and three staff members at Parkland’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Feb. When she asked if his father had yelled at him, he turned and replied, “No, Daddy is dead.” He didn't get grief counseling for four years. She said Cruz ran past his mother crying. Browd, a close friend of Cruz's late adoptive mother Lynda, testified Monday that Cruz was almost 6 when his father died of a heart attack at the family home. Finai Browd is shown on a courtroom monitor during her videotaped testimony during the penalty phase of the trial of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooter Nikolas Cruz at the Broward County Courthouse in Fort Lauderdale on Monday.
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