He is named or referenced in at least 36 incidents, investigation and call reports between 20. Prosecutors mentioned three earlier crimes to which Cruz pleaded guilty, but records from the Broward County Sheriff's Office and Coral Springs police show his encounters with law enforcement were much more extensive. His attorney described him as a victim of "hysteria" due to the massacre. In his first court appearance through closed-circuit TV on March 20, Cruz was shackled and surrounded by three armed deputies, uncommon for someone appearing on a trespassing charge. Instead, the judge in Cruz's case set bail last week at $500,000, ordered a psychological evaluation, electronic monitoring and no communication with his older brother. Zachary Cruz faced a second-degree misdemeanor with a bond that is typically $25. "Zachary Cruz is not someone any of us needs to fear he's someone who needs our compassion." Was he being punished for his brother's crime? "Zachary is a normal 18-year-old kid who has experienced something more profound than any of us could imagine," the statement said in closing. He simply wanted to "try to make sense of this." Sorrow for the victims and their families, sorrow for his brother, who he loves."Ĭruz didn't expect to see anyone when he went to the Parkland school, the lawyer said. "Then in February, the only family member that he had left, his brother, murdered 17 people in cold blood. He was 17."įollowing his mother's death, Cruz was forced to move and leave behind his school and his friends. "He watched his mother slowly weaken and die just four months ago. "Zachary has experienced and continues to experience a trauma unlike anything any of us could imagine," the attorney said. Cruz 'overcome with sorrow' after shootingĪt the end of Thursday's hearing, in a statement read by his attorney, Cruz apologized "to anyone who felt scared or threatened by his presence on Marjory Stoneman Douglas campus last week." There is no evidence that the defendant threatened anyone when arrested, Kimok wrote. His attorney filed a motion for his client's release, calling his treatment immoral, reprehensible, unlawful and unconstitutional. Police said he visited the campus at least three times since the school massacre. "He is being held because of who he is related to, not because of anything that he did," Kimok told Judge Kim Theresa Mollica. His attorney Joseph Kimok had earlier argued that the excessive bond showed Cruz was being punished for his brother's actions. Cruz, shackled and wearing a brown jumpsuit Thursday morning, pleaded no contest to trespassing. Probation was reached as part of a plea deal in the case. After his arrest, the younger Cruz told police he wanted to "reflect on the school shooting and soak it in," according to an arrest report. He is also forbidden from having any contact with victims or family members of the February 14 mass shooting.Ĭruz, 18, was arrested March 19 on a misdemeanor trespassing charge at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High. Under the terms of his probation, Zachary Cruz will wear a GPS monitor and must remain one mile away from the Marjory Stoneman Douglas campus. He was initially jailed on a $500,000 bond, leading his attorney to argue he was being punished because of his older brother, who killed 17 people last month at the school in one of the deadliest mass shootings in modern US history. The younger Cruz was released Thursday afternoon from the Broward County Jail. Zachary Cruz, the younger brother of Parkland, Florida, school shooter Nikolas Cruz, was sentenced Thursday to six months of probation for trespassing at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School earlier this month.
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