PARKLAND SCHOOL SHOOTING TRIAL

Nikolas Cruz offered an apology after entering his guilty plea but no explanation for the carnage in a statement that turned into a rambling rant.

As Nikolas Cruz entered his guilty plea Wednesday in a Fort Lauderdale courtroom, there were tears and hugs among families of the victims.

Nikolas Cruz spoke softly to Broward Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer as he pleaded guilty to a November 2018 jail guard attack.

Some of the families of those killed in the Parkland school shooting say they had no idea a guilty plea was coming for confessed shooter Nikolas Cruz, but they said the defense team’s announcement Friday doesn’t surprise them.

Nikolas Cruz has pleaded guilty to an attack on a jail guard and plans to do the same in the case of the Parkland school massacre, his attorneys said in court Friday.

Cruz’s defense argued that surveillance video prior to the scuffle was not preserved, denying him a fair trial. Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer ruled that there was no due process violation.

Nikolas Cruz was in a Fort Lauderdale courtroom Tuesday for an evidentiary hearing related to the case involving charges he attacked a jail guard in November 2018, nine months after the Parkland shooting.

Defense attorneys representing Nikolas Cruz wanted to be able to question jurors after a potential guilty verdict, but before the penalty phase begins.

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for Cruz, who confessed to the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Feb. 14, 2018.

Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer ruled Friday that it’s impossible to create a complete list of words prosecutors and witnesses won’t be allowed to use to describe Nikolas Cruz.

Accused killer Nikolas Cruz appeared in a South Florida courtroom on Wednesday as attorneys argued over the language to be used at his trial for the mass murder at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

A Florida judge has refused to close pretrial hearings to the media and public in the case of the man accused of killing 17 people in a 2018 high school mass shooting.