Parkland Victim’s Son Storms Out of Courtroom as Cruz Verdict Is Read

The son of a school employee murdered in cold blood at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School stormed out of the courtroom Thursday as a judge read out a jury’s recommendation that the killer should be spared his life. Nikolas Cruz escaped the death penalty Thursday for killing Chris Hixon and 16 others in 2018. While the jury found that prosecutors had proved aggravating factors that warranted death, they found that those factors were outweighed by mitigating circumstances put forward by Cruz’s defense team. After that verdict was read out for Hixon, his son, Corey Hixon, was seen on a live feed leaving the South Florida courtroom. Relatives of other victims, who were mostly teenagers, shook their head and wept as Judge Elizabeth Scherer delivered the lengthy verdict over an hour. Cruz will be officially sentenced next month, when family members of victims will have a final chance to give victim impact statements.