FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Jurors got their first look Monday at the semi-automatic rifile that was used to kill 17 people and injure 17 others at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
Prosecutor Mike Satz asked Sgt. Gloria Crespo of the Broward Sheriff’s Office to identify the Smith & Wesson rifle, which she had collected at the scene after the Feb. 14, 2018, shooting, along with five magazines and a vest.
The evidence was shown on the first day of the second week of the sentencing trial where a jury will decide if confessed gunman Nikolas Cruz will be executed or get life in prison without parole.
Family members looked concerned in the presence of the rifle. Helena Ramsay’s father, Vinnie, wouldn’t look up. Most look like they braced for this moment, which passed quickly.
Family members also listened to medical examiners give graphic details of the wounds suffered by victims. Annika Dworet burst into tears as one of the doctors described the fatal wounds of her son Nicholas.
Earlier in the day, jurors heard from the Uber driver who transported the killer to Stoneman Douglas on the day of the shooting.
Laura Zechinni recalled him as being anxious and nervous, but described an otherwise uneventful trip from Loxahatchee Road, where she picked up the killer, to the campus, not knowing he was about to kill 17 and injure 17 others.
Zechinni recalled him carrying a bag that she thought was a music case.
“He told me he was going to a music class. He had a big bag,” she said.
The gunman spent most of the 12-minute, 57-second ride on his phone, Zechinni said. Her earnings for the trip: $4.53.
Other witnesses Monday morning were Justin Colton, one of the 17 students who was shot by Cruz, and Miguel Suarez, a crime scene detective with the Broward Sheriff’s Office who collected evidence of bullet casings and other projectiles found on the second floor of the 1200 building.
Colton, who was a freshman at the time, said he was writing an essay for his fourth-period English class when he heard the loud sounds of gunfire.
“Everyone got up and ran. They all scattered around the classroom trying to take cover,” Colton recalled. “As I was running toward the back of the room, my right arm and lower right back were hit.”
He said he still has a couple of fragments in his lower back and still has difficulty moving his back.
“I can’t do some motions like working out because of my back,” he said.
Suarez described identifying and photographing bullet particles on the second floor. Two other detectives examined the first and third floor, he said.
He described broken windows and spent shell cases all over the floors, on several desks and on the walls.
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