Judge Elizabeth Scherer speaks to prospective jurors during the preliminary jury screening. Photo / AP
Judge Elizabeth Scherer speaks to prospective jurors during the preliminary jury screening. Photo / AP
The first day of jury selection for the sentencing trial of Parkland school shooter Nikolas Cruz took a bizarre turn when a woman said she couldn't give up her time because she needed to meet up with her "sugar daddy" every day.
More than 120 of the first 160 prospective jurors who filed through Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer's courtroom were dismissed.
Most said it would be impossible for them to serve the expected four-month timeframe.
The June case will see lawyers present their arguments in a trial that will end with a jury deciding whether Cruz gets life in prison or a sentence of death for murdering 17 at Parkland's Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida in 2018.
The case will be the worst US mass shooting to go to trial and the selection process is set to take two months.
A few of the potential jurors were dismissed because of health issues, because they don't speak English fluently, or because they had already paid for extensive vacations.
A woman was dismissed when she began crying upon seeing Cruz - not a new occurrence; that also happened to three women at an October hearing. Another prospective juror had a personal connection to Scherer, having taught her how to roller-skate as a child. Yet another had met Cruz in 2016 on a group outing.
In the most bizarre exchange of the first day, an unnamed woman, known only as "Miss Bristol", told the court in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, that she had a lot of commitments.
Cruz, 23, sat between his attorneys, wearing a green sweater and an anti-viral face mask, four sheriff's deputies sitting nearby. He spoke only briefly at the start of the hearing, waiving his right to participate directly in the screening process. He pleaded guilty in October, meaning the jury will only decide if he gets death or life without parole.
Approximately 1500 potential jurors, perhaps more, will be screened over the next few weeks as the pool is pared down to 12 plus eight alternates in a three-step process that will run until the end of May.
