Parkland School Massacre: Cruz's Childhood Neighbor Testifies
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- Опубликовано: 22 авг 2022
- She described him as a handful, hyperactive, a biter and a bedwetter.
Patricia Devaney-Westerlind, a friend and neighbor of #NikolasCruz's adopted mother, takes the stand during the #ParklandSchoolMassacre penalty phase.
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I’m not able to have a sorry feeling for this man. His mental abilities allowed him to carry out his plan. Knows right from wrong. Anticipated it! No excuses. I can’t hear them. He should have let the cops take care of business.
To me, all this talk of his problems is more of an argument FOR the death penalty. The witnesses are shaping the story that he was treated badly, bullied & made fun of to the point that it drove him to do this. This will certainly happen to him in prison & on a larger meaner scale. If it drove him to violence before, imagine how he'll react now. Of course he won't retaliate on the bullies but maybe elderly or disabled inmates cuz he only picks on people who can't fight back. He kept his head buried when it was about the victims but when they talked about his life & during the gun demonstration he was alert & all ears. He's likely not done killing.
@@lauracook8203 He's already shown signs by attacking the guard and going for his taser. Death row will be a blessing for him, he won't last a month in gen pop.
Cops were cowards. How were they going to "take care of business"?
I hope someone gets to him in prison. Slow a nd painful as guards look the other way.
No, if he wasn’t diagnosed properly then it’s everyone he’s met along the way that failed to provide him supports and proper school placement. Everything that lead to the murders was a horrible set of circumstances. From his mother’s drug use during pregnancy, to his dysfunctional childhood, and the school district that failed to place him in a school that supports children with severe behaviors. This is happening to other people as you sit here and read the comments. Children who are not properly diagnosed, parent’s who are in denial, and school districts who fail to act and place and provide the proper supports for children like him. It will happen again.
People reacting like you are, will do nothing to keep this from happening again. Sped law needs to change, and school districts and CPS need to do their part.
While he may have suffered a bad childhood, he still knew right from wrong. There is no justification for the massacre he did that day
This is penalty phase. No one is justifying his actions in these hearings at this point.
Which meant that he should know better and shame on him!
She may as well not wear a mask if it’s not covering the nose 🙄🙄🙄
Go back to California
Wearing a mask is pointless anyway ,regardless how u wear it ,mask doesn't protect u from anything
It’s waded up in her mouth. Ugh
She's obviously not wearing it for protection, so she's just wearing it to be annoying and so no one can understand her while she chews on her mask while answering. Gross.
The mask was distracting.
This trial analyzes every little detail. It’s never ending. It must be torture for family and friends of the victims..
He plead guilty. It's all a waste of tax payer money.
This is the penalty phase. Not a conviction trial
@@tabbyrose73 he already said the survivors of the victims should decide his fate. And many of us agreed.
*taxpayer
@@jillionairess get your rope ready
@@TheHeavensFellen nah, I don’t lust for blood. That’s a GOP thing. I just know what he said.
omg this woman is beyond difficult.
My heart breaks for the people who died in this shooting. Watching today's testimony is excruciating as we witness this child with disabilities treated from the womb by so many in his young life with unkindness. Nikolas was awkward and described as "wierd" by neighbors. Would things be different if everybody who encountered this boy treated him with love and kindness?
I doubt it Shawna. Maaaaany people have terrible childhoods but do not turn into this kind of evil.
Nikolas Cruz was clearly troubled and appeared to cry out for help with his actions over the years. I don't think he ever got the help, support or understanding he needed as a child with disabilities. I don't excuse at all what he did, the horror of it is incomprehensible but our system will once again fail this young man if he is put to death.
What’s taking so long already? Why is this guy still able to breathe???!!!
Has anyone noticed when the families spoke he kept his head buried but when it was time to offer up mitigating factors about how terrible his childhood was he was alert, listening and looking up at his witnesses.
Also when he gave that apology speech the words he used most were I & me.
He just does not get it.
One of the things killers always say when begging for their life (Nikolas Cruz included) is they want to "help people". Cruz has been locked up for 3 years. I wish the judge would ask him how many people has he helped so far? With all his wisdom & life experience lol.
He paid attention when the gun demonstrations were in court as well, when the man was showing how the rifle works etc
I think it's normal he wants to learn about his background. Im sure a lot of questions about things/feelings he has experienced are being answered.
If I had a dollar for every time she said she had 6 kids....
And I feel sorry for them with this sniveling, opportunistic snob. Shame on her for soliciting NC in jail so she can get in on this trial.
Children she exposes to Cruz by allowing to talk to him on the phone 🙄🙄
Wow day 16, I don't understand why this is dragging out so long people having to put their lives on hold to deal with this penalty phase ,how much longer is this going to go on.
Kind of ironic how it took him what all five minutes if that to kill n injure the students and teachers at this school but everyone is having to take such care and time when deciding what to do with this pos. Smh
They said b4 this trial started that it will take months.
Exactly 💯
It only took 5 minutes to kill and wound 34 people and yet it will take almost 5years to receive the punishment verdict.
100% AGREE
About 60 more witnesses and then deliberation. October or November.
This is not a credible witness - not after reading her jail calls to Nicholas!
where can you read them?
His biological parents basically sold their kids, and the buyers are a little crazy themselves.
I don’t think it’s right to be as old as Linda and roger Cruz were and adopt infants.
The more I listen to his story, it is clear to me that his mother's addictions, basically she had an alcohol and drugs daily diet, had to do something to him as a foetus. There is so much we still don't know about our human body and brain yet. He was in a loving family, privileged home and yet something happened to him that clicked in his brain and turned into a monster. The same way we cannot explain how people suffering mental health problems can commit suicide leaving beautiful babies and a loving wife behind, there has to be an explanation for a kid to turn into a monster. Was he born a monster or was he turned into one? The more I hear about his loving family I tend to think he was born like this from the womb.
I feel sad for everyone involved. 😞
Yep everything is sad about every part of this story starting with Nicholas being poisoned in the womb all the way to his own horrific decision to kill so many people. None of it is right and none of it is ok. ☹️
The witness is so aggravating, when someone asks you a direct question, give them a direct answer. Not that hard to do
She doesn't seem like she's all there
Being a witness in a tragic, high-profile, televised case likely produces anxiety, which can affect the way someone communicates. Stop btching and go watch scripted shows if you're that impatient.
She even winked to Cruz after the testimony while walking out. Hope the victims families didn't see that.
@@mbb-- A lot of people watching these live cases appear to be very immature. They decide on their version of who's innocent/guilty from the start. They become impatient when anybody goes off their imagined script or has to cover "unexciting" matters. I dread the thought of any of them serving on a jury.
I agree with you!!! I watched her testimony live and she was winding me right up! She wouldn’t answer the bloody questions that were being asked!!! I lost count how many times she said that she had kids!!!! She aggravated me so much!!
Nikolas Cruz was dealt the worst hand in life. He did not choose to have a drug addicted mother. He was not born with the same faculties the rest of us (most of us anyway) were born with so he was incapable of dealing with the complexities of life the way society expects us too. Nikoals did not choose to have his father die when he was five. Nikolas did not choose to have a psychopathic younger brother who made his life miserable. Mrs. Cruz, God bless her heart did the best she could with an impossible situation. As a mother, I put myself in her shoes and I just cannot imagine what she went through, and if she was alive to see this, my heart breaks for her and Nikolas. Nikolas had nature and nurture going against him. All of these are mitigating circumstances, whether you like it or not. I am not making excuses for Nikolas. Nikolas Cruz should have been in a locked down in-patient facility. But these do not exist for patients like Nikolas Cruz. It is tragic how all the teachers and therapists and doctors each had their own experience and knowledge of Nikolas, but there was no communication or coordination to adequately address the condemned soul that is Nikolas Cruz. No one had a complete picture of Nikolas, just pieces to a puzzle. If they had the whole picture, they should have Bakered him. Then he could not have purchased the guns. The victims and their families deserve justice, but what is justice? I had to look it up: Justice is a concept of moral rightness based on ethics, rationality, law, natural law, religion, or equity. It is also the act of being just and/or fair. Certainly the victims did not deserve what they got, nor do the families deserve the pain they are suffering, but is Nikolas’s death is just retribution. It is not justice. It will not bring them back or make them whole. Nikolas’s death will not make anything better for them. Nickolas is guilty and he should be punished, but is death a reasonable and just punishment?
If you have no compassion for Nikolas, you are not a parent.
I agree with your statement!!!!!!!!
Agree 100%
i cant stand when ppl wear the mask under the nose....... either off or on the right way.. js
Me too! In my head I constantly say... pull your f***ing mask up!
Mask don’t make any difference! She should just take it off
@gooberboots If the masks work so well how come it hasn’t stopped the spread .? We have lived many years without masks even when viruses went around .
I remember going to a farmers market and my partners mask had fallen down his nose because his mask was slightly to big and this lady who had something to do with the market hauled ass past people to get to us practically running folks down, stepping on necks to get to us. and looked like she was about to have a massive nervous break-down and said with her hands together 👏 in front of our faces “could you wear your mask correctly and pull it up over your nose? K, thanks” and then mowed people down to get back to the other side of the very packed market pavilion. We were astonished and shocked and slightly scared at her sudden and unhinged reaction to his mask slipping.
she admitted to having inappropriate phone calls with him whilst he has been in jail. To me, that only means one thing. and then she winked at him when she left the court. they are most definitely having phone sex.
Shut the front door 🚪 little Nicky 🤦♀️
I don't wanna know about him and then having phone sex, she's atleast 60 or 50
I hope the victims families did not see the wink she gave to Cruz. It must be very fustrating and difficult to hear and see all these.
Where's her cross examination
Nikolas Cruz is everything that was predicted the crack babies from 1980’s-1990’s crack epidemic would be. Lots of resources were in place. He was even adopted into a nice home but his sickness prevailed uncontrollably. FAS is reasoning for his improper communication skills. I still feel like the school system could’ve done better bc they were really proactive by escorting Nikolas after bringing a weapon to school. Special needs should’ve meant special implementations. Other than the academic plan that met his IEP.
Actually no.
Agreed - I hear lots of entitlements - but no consequences. Just because someone has behavioral problems doesn't mean they should be handled with kid gloves. He needed a strong person to break this will-fullness and massive behavioral problems. He just ran over everyone.
@@dianabraley8307 absolutely!
he didn't bring a weapon to school when he attended, or didn't get caught doing so.
he didn't bring a weapon to school when he attended, or didn't get caught doing so.
He talks dirty to her? She winked at him?
You break the video at the most crucial part of her testimony and don't have a Part 2.
Thumb down.
I caught the year error abut neither the attorney nor the witness noticed. Witnesses need to remove their masks. They struggle to speak clearly.
I've been following the trial. I read here that this witness winked at NC when she walked out. I never saw that. I can't believe she'd do that. How could she? And esp. in front of everyone in Court & on TV! She said she took his calls from jail & when they asked if the conversations were inappropriate at all, she hesitated & said yes, some of it was, but that he was "just joking." JUST JOKING?? With his past behavior & history, why she would EVER put up with that, listen to him, & not hang up immediately is beyond me.
Attorneys could have put in defense of " Diminished Capacity" !!!!!!!!
I doubt they could as there is zero evidence supporting this or an NGRI defense. Thus, they have to go for the "excuse" defense.
This is all a waste of time. They are dragging their feet. Ridiculous questions.
Awfully nice home. I wonder the behavioral contrasts of other kids born on hard luck?
Exactly. They didn't do such things, so the problem must of all started in the womb
@@lisal.-f.363 I understand, but I just think he’s an idiot.
Couldn’t listen to her talking with her sliming into her mask
I've been following this trial. I understand that the shooter's birthmom was addicted to drugs and alcohol. I'm an adoptive parent. We adopted our daughter from birth through open adoption. The more I follow this case, the more I feel they focus on the fact he was adopted. I understand he obviously has FACD. But this makes it sound like kids who were adopted are damaged. Not true. Our daughter's birthmom was like any of us. I feel like both the defense and prosecution focus on the fact he was adopted. It actually makes me sick. They raised him from birth. I don't know. Please don't judge my reaction, but I feel like they spend too much time on "he was adopted" our daughter, who we adopted from birth, is an A student, has many friends, is loving and loved.
I don't think they're portraying that his adoptive parents failed him. What they're trying to do is spare him the death penalty by deeming his birth mother the cause of his mental ailments. He was given a golden opportunity to live a (more than) normal, privileged life. They keep bringing it up because he was saved from the horrible hand at life he was dealt. They keep bringing it up because it wasn't enough to save him. That is what they're trying to get across to spare his pathetic existence... Even adoption couldn't save him because he was so damaged from what his birth mother did to him while he was in the womb. That's why they keep bringing it up. He made his bed, and he can sleep in it for eternity for all I care.
Nobody is saying that kids who were adopted are damaged. The point is that his birth mother was drug addict while she was pregnant (that´s the main issue). Genes and upbringing both matter.
So true hey, it should not be an excuse many people are adopted and abused and they never ever kill people
I get that. I'm not saying his birthmom had no effect on him. If I were on the jury, I don't know if I could sentence someone to death. The thing is, over and over again in the media, if someone was adopted, that's what they flock to. I'm tired of hearing "adoptive parents " adoption is permanent. If you adopt a baby, the baby WAS adopted, not IS adopted. I'm just trying to convey the stigma of adoptees.
@@annashafto8823 I totally understand. My mom was adopted at birth. My (adoptive which is really weird saying) grandparents have been more REAL grandparents to me than my biological ones. Practically non-existent to say the least. I wouldn't be who, what or where I am today if it weren't for them. They are my true family.
Well cover your nose. Honestly what's the point in wearing a mask. All your bothered about is hiding your face. Honestly they know who you are.
I thought maybe she was under airborne precautions and didn’t want to infect others
She sounds sick too!
@@daniellethomas2915
She does sound like she has a cold but she isn't protecting no one with that mask hanging off 🤷♀️
That is the LEAST of the issues going on
They're just dragging this thing out they just need to sentence the boy and get it over with. This is the first mass shooting trial that they have done this way
What is the point of these questions. This is NC trial
Why is she wearing a mask if it's not covering her nose?
sometimes i do that. Why are you picking on her with small things???????????????????????
This defense lawyer’s competent.
I don't know if this guy must get life behind bars or death penalty. Cause death means he has an easy way out and life means he will still live and survive on tax payers money. Gosh I pray for his as well. What he did is u forgiveable.
Death penalty is more expensive for the taxpayers.
I feel sorry for everyone in this situation. Yes, families are suffering but Nicolas Cruz was mistreated even before being born.
It's a tough choice,but 17 families ruined.
Free room and board
3 meals a day
No job to hustle to.
No clothes to buy
No creditors to worry about.
No child support.
He's a winner.
17 families ruined.
We have to pay regardless of what the verdict is. Death penalty has mandatory appeals and they don’t execute them for years. That’s a lot of money. Life no parole is supporting him the rest of his life and he is young. I’m glad I am not on the jury. I can’t decide which is the worse punishment. I hope he gets whatever brings him the most suffering. It will never be enough or even come close to what these families are going through. God bless the families, including his.
Oh geez
I like this lawyer, she is not for or against her client,, Just the laws kids.. She is factual.
I think she’s amazing! Doing great job.
I agree that the prosecution is great 👍
@@daniellethomas2915 she's putting these victims through hell
I like the guy too, the bald guy!
Why wear a mask over just the mouth?
Why aren’t they saying some thing about her mask falling down to her chin?
I am so sick of finding your belaboring of this tragedy STILL on court tv, enough already!!!!!
Did his Brother testify yet?
Did I miss it?
No he's not testify yet..
@@kazx8712 Do you know if he's supposed to? Thanks for your answer
@@lorikrolikowski9905 yes he's to testify, the judge also ruled the other day he's to answer all questions. No problem x
I thought he wasn't allowed to see Nick
@@kazx8712 Did they say how his Biological died? I probably missed that one too
Good lord.😳I know it’s necessary but man, sometimes questioning can be so monotonous!😑
She adds no relevant testimony
What's with the stupid mask?!
She might have covid, she’s sounds sick
@@brendahiggins355 then she shouldn't be there.
Does it offend you? Even though it's not your business if she wears one or not, she is wearing it for a reason that she doesn't need to explain to anyone.
@@dianamassimo haha
I realize this sounds shallow nevertheless defense counsel’s hairdo is so bad I can barely concentrate on the testimony. That’s a problem. Get a hairdresser. I guarantee it will help.
CHILDRENS
Take of your mask. Your nose is open so the masking helps absolutely 0.
That mask is annoying
She is goof ball!
She doesn't even answer some of the questions the way they're asked, she just says whatever she wants. Aren't the lawyers supposed to do a mock-type trial with their witnesses; go over what they're going to say when they testify? And btw, this witness is saying that NC's Mom was such a loving Mother .. so how does that help him? Aren't his lawyers saying he had a terrible upbringing by his Mother and that's why he did what he did?
@@purpleandred7👍
She is his new girlfriend 😍
@@barbmurray8557 whos new girlfriend? Geez lock him up .....its over
@@elizabethgrassi9444 Nicolas Cruz. Sends her naughty stuff
Si vous aviez vécu exactement la même "vie" que Nikolas vous seriez devenus exactement comme lui.
Not true!
@@jogordon1530 Vous n'auriez pas été détruit ? Bien sûr que si, vous n'êtes pas plus fort que les autres. Un simple être humain avec son beau mécanisme fragile.
I know people that are my age who had it far worse than them and THEY didn't go out and kill ANYONE. So NO jes a POS and deserves to die
Ce n’est pas vrai. Même si on vivait exactement la même vie que lui, on ne penserait pas à tuer quelqu’un.
Every person has their own path, we have free will here. Obviously, this is revealing the many Menaces amongst us. It’s not looking good. Hide and watch…and for love of anything good …help when you can, any way you can.
This judge is a joke.
How so?
@@annashafto8823 I agree