Parkland victim's father tells MSNBC the killer will be 'handled' in prison
Fred Guttenberg, whose daughter was killed in the Stoneman Douglas High School massacre, reacted to the jury not recommending the death penalty for her murderer, suggesting he would likely be killed in prison.
Fred Guttenberg, whose daughter Jaime was killed in the Parkland school shooting, seemingly predicted convicted murderer Nikolas Cruz would be killed in prison as inmates will force him to "deal with the consequences" of his actions.
A Florida jury recommended Thursday that Cruz should get life in prison but not the death penalty in the deaths of 17 people. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, R., and others believed the killer should have been executed, and Guttenberg was among those left disappointed by the sentencing, but he suggested Cruz would be "handled" in the general population.
"For the first time in months last night, I actually slept through the night and maybe the reason is I didn’t have angst and anxiety over what the testimony would be, or the outcome," Guttenberg said Friday on MSNBC.
"Maybe the fact that I slept last night also means it is time to turn the page, close that chapter," Guttenberg said. "He will go to a general population in a prison now, and he will have to deal with the consequences directed at him from other prisoners. I will put him out of my consciousness for the rest of my life until I read a news report that the other prisoners handled it."
Serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, who was also convicted of killing 17 people, was famously killed in prison by fellow inmates in 1994. His death was recently portrayed in a popular Netflix series.
As for Cruz, the jury failed to reach a unanimous verdict on a recommendation for the death penalty on all counts. Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer set sentencing for Nov. 1, when victim impact statements will be delivered.
Cruz, 24, pleaded guilty last year to the murders of 14 students and three staff members at Parkland's Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Feb. 14, 2018 — a date that he said he picked so the school would never celebrate Valentine's Day again.
Parkland shooter Nikolas Cruz appears in a Broward County Courthouse in Fort Lauderdale on Aug. 23. (Amy Beth Bennett/South Florida Sun Sentinel via AP, Pool)
FLORIDA PRINCIPAL ACCUSED OF LEAVING GUNS UNATTENDED IN CONFERENCE ROOM AT PARKLAND SCHOOL
Cruz fired volleys from an AR-15-style semi-automatic rifle down hallways and into classrooms for about seven minutes, returning to those who lay wounded to kill them. He said he purchased the rifle almost exactly a year before the shooting and began to seriously plan it about seven months in advance.
Fred Guttenberg reacts as he awaits a verdict in the trial of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooter Nikolas Cruz at the Broward County Courthouse in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on Thursday, Oct. 13, 2022. Guttenberg's daughter, Jaime, was killed in the 2018 shootings. (Amy Beth Bennett/South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP, Pool)
During the three-month penalty trial that determined his sentence, prosecutors played security videos of the shooting and showed gruesome crime scene and autopsy photos. Teachers and students testified about seeing other students and staff killed, while parents and spouses gave emotional statements.
Cruz’s lead attorney Melisa McNeill and her team argued that his birth mother’s heavy drinking during pregnancy left him with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder.
Fox News’ Louis Casiano, Stephen Sorace and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
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