Nikolas Cruz, the Parkland school shooter, was given a life sentence without the possibility of parole on Wednesday after two days of difficult hearings.
Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer’s sentence was only a formality after a jury decided last month to spare Cruz from the death penalty. Cruz is accused of 17 different murders.
Victims’ distressed family members angrily attacked Cruz and the defense team in the two days before the judge’s ruling.
The life sentence was given more than four years after Cruz shot and murdered 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and injured other students, making it the bloodiest high school massacre in American history.
The victim’s relatives, the last of whom spoke on Wednesday before Scherer handed down the punishment, were shocked and appalled by the jury’s verdict.