FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (Scripps News West Palm) — The upcoming sentencing trial for the man who confessed to killing 17 people at a Parkland high school in 2018 will be delayed until February.
FILE – In this Wednesday, Oct. 6, 2021, file photo, Parkland school shooter Nikolas Cruz cries during day two of jury selection in his trial at the Broward County Courthouse in Fort Lauderdale Fla., on four criminal counts stemming from his alleged attack on a Broward jail guard in November 2018. The lawyers for Cruz said Friday, Oct. 15, 2021, that he plans to plead guilty to the 2018 massacre at a Parkland high school. (Amy Beth Bennett/South Florida Sun Sentinel via AP, Pool, File)
Broward County Circuit Court Judge Elizabeth Scherer issued the written order Wednesday.
The trial was scheduled to begin in January.
However, Scherer said in the order that parties on both sides addressed the need for “additional time to prepare their experts for trial.”
Scherer agreed and set the upcoming trial for Nikolas Cruz to begin on Feb. 21.
Cruz, 23, pleaded guilty Oct. 20 to 17 counts of first-degree murder in the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School massacre.
Of the 17 victims, 14 were students at the school.
Jurors will determine whether Cruz should be sentenced to death or life in prison without parole.
Cruz has already been sentenced Cruz to 26 years in prison on four charges related to the jail guard attack, to which he pleaded guilty in October.
Scott Sutton at WPTV first reported this story.
