A protection psychological well being skilled within the penalty trial of Florida faculty shooter Nikolas Cruz can pinpoint when he realized the 23-year-old mass assassin nonetheless has "irrational ideas" — the 2 had been making small discuss when Cruz started describing plans for an eventual life outdoors jail.
Wesley Middle, a Texas counselor, stated that occurred final 12 months on the Broward County jail as he fitted Cruz's scalp with probes for a scan to map his mind. The protection at hearings this week will attempt to persuade Circuit Decide Elizabeth Scherer that Middle and different specialists needs to be allowed to testify at Cruz's ongoing trial about what their assessments confirmed, one thing the prosecution needs barred.
"He had some type of epiphany whereas he was in (jail) that may focus his ideas on having the ability to assist individuals," transcripts present Middle informed prosecutors throughout a pretrial interview this 12 months. "His life's function was to be serving to others."
Cruz, in fact, won't ever be free. Since his arrest about an hour after he murdered 14 college students and three workers members at Parkland's Marjory Stoneman Douglas Excessive College on Feb. 14, 2018, there has by no means been any doubt his remaining years can be behind bars, sentenced to dying or life with out parole. Surveillance video reveals him mowing down his victims with an AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle and he confessed, finally pleading responsible in October.
Prosecutors made their argument for dying to the seven-man, five-woman jury and 10 alternates over three weeks, resting their case Aug. 4 after the panel toured the still-bloodstained, bullet-pocked classroom constructing the place the bloodbath occurred.
The jurors additionally watched graphic surveillance movies; noticed grotesque crime scene and post-mortem photographs; obtained emotional testimony from lecturers and college students who witnessed others die; and heard from tearful and indignant dad and mom, spouses and different members of the family concerning the victims and the way their beloved one's dying impacted their lives. They watched video of the previous Stoneman Douglas pupil calmly ordering an Icee minutes after the taking pictures and, 9 months later, attacking a jail guard.
Quickly, it is going to be Cruz's attorneys arguing why he needs to be spared, hoping to persuade no less than one juror their mitigating components outweigh the prosecution's aggravating circumstances — a dying sentence have to be unanimous.
However first, the trial took final week off to accommodate some jurors' requests to cope with private issues. The jury will even be absent this week as the edges argue earlier than Scherer, who will determine whether or not mind scans, assessments and different proof the protection needs to current beginning Aug. 22 is scientifically legitimate or junk, because the prosecution contends.
Middle's check and its findings shall be topic to contentious debate. Known as a "quantitative electroencephalogram" or "qEEG," its backers say it supplies helpful assist to such diagnoses as fetal alcohol syndrome, which Cruz's attorneys contend created his lifelong psychological and emotional issues.
EEGs have been frequent in medication for a century, measuring brainwaves to assist docs diagnose epilepsy and different mind illnesses. However the qEEG evaluation, which has been round for the reason that Seventies, goes a step farther — a affected person's EEG outcomes are in comparison with a database of brainwaves taken from regular or "neurotypical" individuals. Whereas qEEG findings can't be used to make a prognosis, they will assist findings based mostly on the affected person's historical past, examination, conduct and different assessments, supporters contend.
A "qEEG can verify what you already know, however you may't create new data," Middle informed prosecutors in his interview.
Dr. Charles Epstein, an Emory College neurology professor, reviewed Middle's findings for the prosecution. In a written assertion to Scherer, he stated EEGs utilizing solely exterior scalp probes just like the one given Cruz are imprecise, making Middle's qEEG outcomes nugatory.
"Rubbish in, rubbish out," he wrote.
Florida judges have given combined rulings about permitting qEEGs since 2010, when the check helped a Miami-area man escape a dying sentence for fatally stabbing his spouse and severely wounding her mentally disabled 11-year-old daughter. Some judges have since allowed their admission, whereas others barred them. Scherer, who's overseeing her first dying penalty trial, has by no means had a case the place the protection tried to current a qEEG report.
Even when Scherer bars the check, lead protection lawyer Melisa McNeill and her workforce nonetheless have proof that Cruz's mind seemingly suffered harm within the womb, together with statements by his late beginning mom that she abused alcohol and cocaine throughout being pregnant.
In addition they have experiences giving circumstantial proof of his psychological sickness. Cruz obtained kicked out of preschool for hurting different kids. Throughout his years in public faculty, he spent vital time at a middle for college students with emotional points. He additionally obtained years of psychological well being therapy.
Then there are his life circumstances. Cruz's adoptive father died in entrance of him when he was 5; he was bullied by his youthful brother and his brother's pals; he was allegedly abused sexually by a "trusted peer;" he lower himself and abused animals; and his adoptive mom died lower than 4 months earlier than the taking pictures.
His youth will even be a problem — he was 19 when the taking pictures occurred.
Attorneys not concerned within the case say if Scherer needs to keep away from having a attainable dying sentence overturned on attraction, she ought to give the protection large latitude on what it presents so jurors can totally assess his life and psychological well being.
"If it is a shut name, I believe she goes to bend to the protection — and the prosecution isn't going to be completely happy," stated David S. Weinstein, a Miami felony protection lawyer and former prosecutor.