Nikolas Cruz, Parkland School Shooter, Sentenced To Life In Prison

FORT LAUDERDALE, FL — A jury on Thursday recommended a sentence of life in prison without parole for Nikolas Cruz, the gunman who killed 17 people and wounded 17 others when he opened fire four years ago on Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

The jury made the decision on the second day of deliberations just 15 minutes after jurors arrived at the Broward County Courthouse in Fort Lauderdale and examined the gun Cruz used during the deadly massacre.

A unanimous vote was required to recommend the death penalty; however, the jury rejected the death penalty on all 17 first-degree murder convictions. The parents and families of the victims shook their heads and wiped away tears as the recommendations were read.

"This jury failed our families today," Fred Guttenberg told the New York Times. Guttenberg's daughter, Jaime, was among those killed in the Parkland shooting. "Seventeen families did not receive justice."

Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer set Cruz's formal sentencing for Nov. 1. Families and loved ones will be given the opportunity to speak at the hearing. Scherer cannot impose the death penalty on her own.

Cruz, 24, pleaded guilty last October to the Feb. 14, 2018, shooting rampage that killed 14 students and three staff members and wounded 17 others.

• RELATED: Parkland Families Still Waiting For Change 4 Years After Massacre

The massacre was the deadliest mass shooting that ever went to trial in the United States. Nine other people in the United States who fatally shot at least 17 people died during or immediately after their attacks by suicide or police gunfire.

The suspect in the 2019 massacre of 23 at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, is awaiting trial.

Prosecutors on Tuesday asked the jury to recommend Cruz be sentenced to death, saying he meticulously planned the February 2018 massacre.

Lead prosecutor Michael Satz said Cruz "was hunting his victims" as he stalked a three-story classroom building at school for seven minutes, firing his AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle into some victims at close range and returning to wounded victims as they lay helpless "to finish them off."

He pointed to Cruz's internet writings and videos, where he talked about his murderous desires such as when he wrote, “No mercy, no questions, double tap. I am going to kill a ... ton of people and children.”

"What he wanted to do, what his plan was, and what he did was to murder children at school and their caretakers," Satz said of Cruz, according to CNN. "That’s what he wanted to do."

In her closing arguments, defense attorney Melisa McNeill stressed that Cruz already pleaded guilty and admitted responsibility for the massacre, ABC News reported. She also argued that Cruz suffered lifelong developmental delays stemming from fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, saying Cruz was "poisoned in the womb" and his "brain was irretrievably broken."

Cruz "knew the difference between right and wrong that day — and he chose wrong," McNeill said.

Prior to his sentencing, prosecutors played the jurors video of Cruz's jailhouse interviews with two mental health experts. He answered their questions with graphic detail and outlines his plans and motivation behind the shooting.

When asked why he chose Valentine's Day, Cruz told the mental health experts he wanted to "ruin it for everyone."

The holiday will never be celebrated there again, he told them.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.