Nikolas Cruz, who pleaded guilty to 34 criminal charges, faces life in prison or the death penalty.
Nikolas Cruz, convicted of killing 17 people in a 2018 Parkland, Florida, high school shooting, said he decided to commit the shooting on Valentine’s Day because he wanted to ruin everyone’s day.
“Because I thought no one was going to love me,” Cruz told psychologist Robert Denney in an interview.
“I don’t like Valentine’s Day and I wanted to ruin it for everyone,” he added.
“You mean the relatives of the children who were killed?” Denney questioned.
“No, to school,” he replied while indicating that Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School would no longer celebrate Valentine’s Day due to the crime.
The statements are contained in video images that were exposed in court this Thursday as part of the process to determine whether Cruz, 24, would be sentenced to death.
Cruz pleaded guilty last October to 34 criminal charges, including murder, for the massacre that also left 17 injured.
Now, it’s up to a jury to decide whether the convict should serve life in prison or be sentenced to death as part of the sentencing phase.
Prosecutors released the audiovisual material recorded from the prison in which the young man has been confined to try to convince the jury that Cruz knew what he was doing and planned it, and support his request for the death penalty. Denney, from Missouri, interviewed Cruz on several occasions.
In another recording shared yesterday at the Broward County courthouse in Ft. Lauderdale, Cruz told Denney that he had tortured animals.
“I burned them, I tortured them, I skinned them alive, I shot them,” Cruz said without emotion.
“I used to play with their bodies or eat them,” Cruz added.
The murderer’s defense posits that his client suffers from fetal alcohol syndrome, which affects the functioning and development of his brain.
In Denney’s opinion, Cruz suffers from an antisocial personality disorder characterized by impulsive actions and an amoral attitude.
On Tuesday of next week, the parties to the case will offer closing arguments as part of the court proceeding.