On February 14, 2018 Nikolas Cruz killed seventeen people in Parkland, Florida, a city in Broward County in the north of the Miami metropolitan area. A further seventeen people were the subject of attempted murder counts. He was arrested within hours, charged within a day and indicted three weeks later. In October 2021 he pleaded guilty to every count in the indictment, leaving a jury in Fort Lauderdale to decide only whether he should be sentenced to death or to life in prison without parole.
That jury, selected in 2022, sat through a penalty trial lasting about three months. On October 13, 2022 it reported that it could not agree unanimously that he should be put to death. Under Florida law that finding fixed the sentence, and on November 2, 2022 the presiding judge sentenced him to life without the possibility of parole on each murder count, with all sentences to run consecutively. He was committed to the Florida state prison system.
The killings took place on Wednesday, February 14, 2018, in Parkland. Seventeen people died. He was arrested the same day and booked by the Broward Sheriff's Office on 17 counts of premeditated murder.
He appeared before a judge on Thursday, February 15, 2018, and was ordered held without bond.
A Broward County grand jury indicted Cruz on March 7, 2018. The indictment contained 34 counts: 17 of first-degree premeditated murder and 17 of first-degree attempted murder. The case was brought in the Circuit Court for Broward County, sitting in Fort Lauderdale.
While he was in county detention, a separate prosecution was brought over a November 2018 incident involving a detention sergeant. On October 15, 2021 Cruz stood before the same court and pleaded guilty to four felony counts of assault and battery on a law enforcement officer, saying "I am guilty." Sentencing in that case was set for October 20, 2021, when the maximum he faced was 15 years.
On Wednesday, October 20, 2021, in the Broward County Courthouse in Fort Lauderdale, Cruz, then 23, pleaded guilty before the presiding Circuit Judge to 17 counts of first-degree murder and 17 counts of attempted first-degree murder. The pleas settled the question of guilt. They did not settle the sentence: because the State was seeking death, Florida law required a penalty trial before a jury of twelve to decide between a death sentence and life in prison without the possibility of parole. Jury selection was scheduled to begin the following January.
His lawyers made clear that they were not contesting the crimes. Their case at the penalty stage was to be about mitigation, and they asked that he be sentenced to life.
The State made its opening statement on July 18, 2022 before twelve jurors, seven men and five women, with ten alternates. Prosecutors argued that the aggravating circumstances, which they described as cold, calculated and cruel, outweighed any mitigating circumstances. The defense deferred its opening until it presented its case, which rested on mitigating circumstances. Under Florida law a juror could also vote for life as an act of mercy, whatever the evidence.
The jury was required to consider each of the 17 murder counts separately, and a single dissent on a count would mean a life sentence on that count. The penalty trial lasted about three months, and the jury deliberated for about seven hours over two days.
On Thursday, October 13, 2022, on the second day of deliberations, the jury returned. Jurors found that the mitigating circumstances outweighed the aggravating factors for each of the 17 murder counts, and that they could not unanimously agree that he should be executed. The jury was divided nine to three. Under the law then in force, a death sentence could be imposed only if all twelve jurors agreed on it for at least one count, so the recommendation on every count was life without parole, and the judge had no power to depart from it.
On Wednesday, November 2, 2022, the presiding Circuit Judge sentenced Cruz, then 24, in the Broward County Circuit Court in Fort Lauderdale. The terms were:
On each of the 17 murder counts, life in prison without the possibility of parole; on 14 of the attempted murder counts, life in prison with a minimum of 20 years on each; and on the remaining three attempted murder counts, life without the possibility of parole on each. All the sentences were ordered to run consecutively.
Before passing sentence the judge established that he understood the proceedings. Relatives of the dead and surviving victims addressed the court. She also granted a motion under Florida's Son of Sam law, which prevents him from profiting financially from the crimes. He was then transferred to the custody of the Florida Department of Corrections.
The sentencing outcome had an immediate effect on the law. On April 20, 2023 the governor of Florida signed Senate Bill 450, which allows a death sentence on a jury recommendation of eight votes to four, where unanimity had previously been required.
A former Broward Sheriff's Office deputy who was on duty on February 14, 2018 was tried in Fort Lauderdale in 2023 on 11 counts, including child neglect. On June 29, 2023 the jury returned not guilty verdicts on all 11.
In August 2024, court filings showed civil judgments against Cruz of $50 million in favor of each of three families of the dead and $40 million in favor of one wounded survivor. Their attorney said the judgments would allow the families to collect if Cruz ever came into money, and acknowledged that they were unlikely to recover much.
No point of guilt is in dispute: Cruz pleaded guilty to each count, and the court's findings on those counts are final as to guilt. The sentence turned on mitigation and on a jury vote on punishment, not on any contest over what he did.
February 14, 2018: Seventeen people are killed in Parkland, Florida; Cruz is arrested the same day.
February 15, 2018: First court appearance; held without bond on 17 counts of premeditated murder.
March 7, 2018: Broward County grand jury indicts him on 17 counts of first-degree premeditated murder and 17 counts of first-degree attempted murder.
November 2018: Incident involving a detention sergeant leads to a separate prosecution.
October 15, 2021: Pleads guilty to four felony counts of assault and battery on a law enforcement officer.
October 20, 2021: Pleads guilty to 17 counts of first-degree murder and 17 counts of first-degree attempted murder.
July 18, 2022: Opening statements in the penalty trial before twelve jurors.
October 13, 2022: Jury does not unanimously recommend death; life without parole follows by law.
November 2, 2022: Sentenced to consecutive life terms.
April 20, 2023: Florida law changed to allow a death recommendation on an 8-4 jury vote.
June 29, 2023: Former deputy found not guilty on all 11 counts.
August 2024: Civil judgments of $50 million (three families) and $40 million (one wounded survivor) entered against Cruz.