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Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz went on an amphibian “killing spree” when he was about 10-years-old after his dog died from eating a poisonous toad, a neighbor testified Wednesday.
Paul Gold, who had lived next door to the Cruz family, told jurors in Broward County Circuit Court, in Fort Lauderdale, that the future mass killer was “volatile” and “strange.”
“He tried to kill every toad in the neighborhood,” recalled Gold, describing the rampage as a “killing spree.”
It was the second week of the defense’s case in Cruz’s penalty trial, which will determine whether he’s sentenced to death or life in prison without parole for massacring 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Feb. 14, 2018, in one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history.
PARKLAND SCHOOL SHOOTING TRIAL: NIKOLAS CRUZ ASKED IF PEOPLE ATE CORPSES DURING THE CIVIL WAR
A photo combination of Nikolas Cruz in court Aug. 31, 2022, and his former neighbor, Paul Gold, testifying on behalf of the defense. The penalty trial will determine whether Cruz is sentenced to death for the Parkland school shooting.
(Amy Beth Bennett/South Florida Sun Sentinel via AP, Pool)
Cruz pleaded guilty in October to 17 counts of first-degree murder for killing 14 students and three staffers.
Gold, like other witnesses, detailed Cruz’s violent outbursts – including an incident where Cruz bashed Gold’s motorcycle trailer with a golf club.
FLORIDA SCHOOL SHOOTER NIKOLAS CRUZ THINKS HE’S GOING TO GET OUT OF PRISON
“It was just bizarre how angry he would become, how volatile. It was very concerning to watch. It was not normal behavior for a child,” Gold said.
The neighbor added that Cruz reacted poorly to loud noises. When Gold showed Cruz and some other children how to break a rack in pool, the sound of the balls hitting each other “freaked out” the child, who would cover his ears.
Nikolas Cruz, 23, in court Monday, Aug. 22, 2022, at his penalty trial.
(Amy Beth Bennett/South Florida Sun Sentinel via AP, Pool)
During an intense cross-examination, prosecutor Jeff Marcus asked Gold if Cruz had any trouble with loud noises when he fired 139 shots at inside the Marjory Stoneman school building – but the defense objected to the question.
Marcus challenged Gold’s credibility, accusing him of trying to make a quick buck after the shooting by pitching a movie about Cruz’s life.
When Gold denied the allegation, Marcus played a recording of a jailhouse call. The neighbor told Cruz that a movie producer he knows suggested such a film – but Cruz said he wasn’t interested in the project.
The gun Nikolas Cruz bought from Michael Morrison (pictured) and used to massacre 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Feb. 14, 2018.
(Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun Sentinel via Reuters)
Defense lawyers have highlighted Cruz’s deeply troubled beginnings, arguing that he suffered brain damage after his biological mother, a sex worker, smoked crack and drank while he was in the womb.
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His adoptive mother, Lynda Cruz, couldn’t cope with his behavioral and developmental deficits and never got him the treatment he needed, the defense team said. She died about four months before the massacre.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
