FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. (WSVN) - A grieving mother is sharing her pain, as the families of the 17 lives lost in the Parkland school shooting come one step closer to finding out whether Nikolas Cruz will spend the rest of his life in prison or will be sentenced to death.
Jury selection for Cruz’s penalty phase trial is set to begin Monday at the Broward County Courthouse in Fort Lauderdale.
Speaking to 7News on Sunday, Linda Beigel Schulman said it’s about time.
“I miss my son terribly every single day,” she said.
The confessed shooter killed her son, Scott Beigel, and 16 others on Valentine’s Day of 2018.
“I vowed not to mourn my son’s death but to celebrate his life,” said Beigel Schulman.
On Monday, the first of thousands of potential jurors will appear in court, as attorneys begin the task of narrowing the pool to just 12 jurors and eight alternates.
For the families of the victims, the past four years have been an emotional roller coaster.
“It’s been 1,510 days today since my son was murdered,” said Beigel Schulman.
Cruz confessed to the crime hours after the mass shooting, but it wasn’t until last October when he pleaded guilty.
Now the 23-year-old enters the sentencing phase. Choosing the jury is expected to take at least a month, and it may take six months to work through the case.
Beigel Schulman’s son died trying to save students. Since then, she said, it’s been her life’s mission to educate others on gun safety.
“When it touches someone’s life the way it’s touched mine, that’s when we become advocates, and it’s just very important to me,” she said, “and I will do everything I can, really, to prevent anybody from going through the pain, the anguish, that I’ve gone through and that I will continue to go through.”
Beigel Schulman currently lives in New York and won’t be in South Florida for jury selection, but she said, once the trial starts, she’ll join other families who plan to be in court, each and every day, until justice is served.
“It’s not going to change my life whatever the verdict is. It’s not going to bring back my son,” she said, “but I want this over with. It needs to be over with.”
It will take a unanimous decision by the jury for Cruz to be sentenced to death.
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