'You Are A Monster': Families Confront Parkland School Shooter

FORT LAUDERDALE, FL — 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, will be formally sentenced this week after a jury recommended he be sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Ahead of the official sentencing, the families and loved ones of the victims addressed Cruz, some for the first time since Feb. 14, 2018, shooting.

Court recessed Tuesday shortly before 2 p.m. Statements from the families are expected to continue Wednesday starting at 1:30 p.m. ET.

Stacey Lippel, a wounded teacher, told Cruz she was "broken and altered."

"Because of you, I check for all exits wherever I am," Lippel said. "Because of you, I think of the worst-case scenario for myself and my family. Because of you, I will never feel safe again. I have no forgiveness in my heart for you. You are a monster with no remorse, and every breath you take is a breath wasted."

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

On Oct. 13, a jury recommended that Cruz serve life in prison without parole rather than be sentenced to death, which left many family members stunned.

"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 will formally sentence Cruz. Scherer cannot impose the death penalty on her own.

Debra Hixon — the wife of athletic director Chris Hixon, a Navy veteran who died trying to stop the shooting — was the first to address Cruz. The killer wore a bright red jail jumpsuit and showed no emotion from behind a face mask.

"You stole him from us, and you did not receive the justice that you deserved," Debra Hixon said. "There is no mitigating circumstance that will outweigh the heinous and cruel way you stole him from us."

During statements, defense attorney Melissa McNeill asked Scherer to request families and survivors to refrain from attacking the defense team.

"I did my job and every member of this team did their job, judge. And we should not personally be attacked for that, nor should our children,” McNeill said.

The prosecution countered McNeill's request, claiming the defense attorneys wanted to "take the voice of the survivors, the victims, and curtail their right." When McNeill attempted to respond, Scherer dismissed her objections.

"Ms. McNeill, stop suggesting that I know that something is impermissible, and I’m allowing it to happen," Scherer said. "You’re finished. I’ve heard your objection. It’s noted."

Cruz is not expected to speak during the sentencing. He apologized in court last year after pleading guilty to the murders and attempted murders; however, families told reporters they thought the apology was to garner sympathy.

Prosecutors had pushed the jury to recommend the death penalty for Cruz, who they said meticulously planned the massacre.

In October, 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."

"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.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.