![]() “Any exploitation of this would be terrible,” Gold answered. “Do you agree it would be deplorable for a friend of the defendant to exploit these brutal murders by making a movie and making money?” asked prosecutor Jeff Marcus. Gold defended his phone conversations as an attempt to find out what motivated Cruz to commit these murders. “I’m amazed somebody hasn’t approached you about making a movie,” Gold told Cruz. Gold and Cruz were talking about movies among other things on a call made one year ago. The state played jail phone call recordings for the jurors despite an objection from the defense team that had not reviewed the recordings first. “She lied about her financial situation I found out later she had some money she just chose not to spend any of it.” She had told him Nikolas and Zachary were her biological children and she dropped frequent hints about not having enough money for food so Gold would buy them groceries at times. When cross-examined by the state, Gold admitted to a falling out with Lynda Cruz and considered her a pathological liar. ![]() Lynda Cruz adopted both Nikolas and Zachary from Woodard, who died last year. Now, Cruz’s defence is presenting its case, seeking to show that Cruz’s actions that day were the culmination of his life up to that point – from him being exposed to drugs and alcohol in the womb through his birth mother, to behavioural and psychological issues from an early age, and the deaths of both of his adopted parents.Driver facing charges after crash in Miami Gardens injures 3, including police officerĮarlier defense testimony detailed how Brenda Woodard had alcohol and drug addictions while pregnant with Nikolas. Prosecutors spent three weeks detailing how Cruz murdered 17 students and staff members and wounded 17 more, with jurors hearing from grieving family members and touring the school site. ![]() Jurors will now decide whether to sentence him to life in prison without parole or to death. Last October, Cruz pleaded guilty to 17 counts of murder and 17 counts of attempted murder over the Valentine’s Day killings. The then-19-year-old stalked the corridors of the freshman building, murdering 17 students and staff members. Three months after Lynda died in November 2017, Cruz travelled to Marjory Stoneman armed with an AR-15 on Valentine’s Day 2018. When Lynda died, Mr Gold said he was no longer in a relationship with Ms Deschamps, with the couple going through a far from amicable split and custody battle for their younger son Tyler.Ĭruz and Zachary initially moved in with Ms Deschamps but Cruz moved out of the home just one month later after the police were called to the home over an alleged fight with Ms Deschamps’ son. Mr Gold and Ms Deschamps moved out of the home in 2011 but stayed in contact with the Cruz family, with Cruz and Zachary sometimes going to visit.īut, Mr Gold said he later had a falling out with Lynda over an iPad that went missing – and which he believed Zachary had stolen. He told the court that he had moved into the home of his then-fiance Roxcanne Deschamps and lived there with Mr Gold’s daughter Isabella and Ms Deschamps’ son Rock Deschamps.Īt the time, Cruz was living with his adoptive mother Lynda Cruz and his brother Zachary next door. Mr Gold lived next door to the Cruz family in Parkland from 2008 to 2011. He then came over and was “profusely apologetic”, said Mr Gold. In one incident, he said that Cruz took a golf club and smashed up a small motorcycle trailer. “He appeared more shocked at himself that he had done it,” said Mr Gold. He said it was clear that Cruz was then “truly sorry” after he lashed out. “Then when he calmed down you could see that he really was apologetic, almost like it was another person who had done it.” ![]() ![]() “He would be very nice and pleasant to people and wanting to be nice to people and then another moment he would lose his temper and break things and seem out of his mind,” he said. Mr Gold said that the episodes of anger were “almost spontaneous or out of nowhere”. Mr Gold recalled that Cruz could suddenly lose his “temper” and have “episodes”, saying that it was “almost like it was another person who had done it”. When asked if he ever saw Cruz or Zachary causing the damage, he said he did see “them getting pretty crazy inside the house”. Mr Gold testified that he often saw damage inside the family’s home. The images show a smashed mirror on a bedroom door and damage on the wall of a bathroom. ‘Daddy’s dead’: Mother’s friend describes moment Parkland shooter Nikolas Cruz watched father die.Nikolas Cruz asked if people ‘ate’ corpses and what Lincoln killing ‘sounded like’ in school Civil War lesson.Nikolas Cruz’s jailhouse calls reveal he laughed about leaving MAGA hat on mother’s grave. ![]()
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