On preliminary charges, the jury recommends life in prison without the possibility of release for the Parkland gunman.

On preliminary charges, the jury recommends life in prison without the possibility of release for the Parkland gunman.

Nikolas Cruz, the shooter at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, stands with Assistant Public Defender Nawal Bashimam (L) and sentence mitigation specialist Kate O'Shea as jurors leave the courtroom to begin deliberations in the penalty phase of his trial on October 12, 2022, at the Broward County Courthouse in Fort Lauderdale. Amy Beth Bennett | AFP | Getty Images

On the first count, a jury recommended that Nikolas Cruz be sentenced to life in prison for the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

The decision of the 12-person jury was still being read Thursday. On the remaining counts, the gunman might face the death penalty.

After more than a day of discussion in the trial, which began on July 18, the jury made their conclusion.

The trial was to determine whether he should be sentenced to life in prison or the death penalty. The prosecution sought the death sentence, while the defense requested life in prison. The jury has to agree unanimously on the death penalty.

Judge Elizabeth Scherer is going through the verdict forms — a total of 17, one for each victim — in front of a crowded courtroom on Thursday, where family members of victims were clearly distraught, shaking their heads and wiping away tears.

On Valentine's Day, the gunman, then 19, attacked the high school, carrying an AR-15-style weapon and spraying bullets. He pled guilty last October to the murders of 14 pupils and three staff members on February 14, 2018.

Before the jury began deliberations on Tuesday, defense attorney Melisa McNeill warned them: "One day, I guarantee you, you will question yourself, did I make the correct decision?" You will remember voting for the rest of your life."

The state's closing statements were finished by lead prosecutor Mike Satz tearfully reciting each victim's name and adding, "The right sentence for Nikolas Cruz is the death penalty."

Prosecutors cited witnesses who witnessed students and staff members die throughout the trial, arguing that the gunman had demonstrated racist and sexist conduct online before to the atrocity. In the spring, violent notes and drawings were discovered in his detention cell.

The defense claimed that his biological mother's drinking throughout her pregnancy contributed to his unpredictable and aggressive behavior.

Nikolas Cruz, the shooter at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, is shown on a TV screen in the media area next to the courthouse as judge Elizabeth Scherer reads the jury decision in the punishment phase of the trial at the Broward County Courthouse in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on October 13, 2022.

In an unusual step, jurors visited the scene of the massacre in August, where little had changed since that fateful day more than four years ago, save for the removal of the victims' bodies and some personal things. They passed by dried rose petals from Valentine's Day scattered on classroom floors, enormous puddles of dried blood, and bullet-riddled walls.

In the trial, forensic psychiatrist Dr. Charles Scott testified for the state that the gunman met the requirements for an antisocial personality disorder diagnosis, which means he had no regard for good and wrong and was aware of what he was doing.

"So it's not like he didn't know or comprehend." "He did," Scott responded, according to NBC Miami. "It's just that [those suffering from a social personality problem] don't care."

Scott described his harrowing jailhouse conversation with the gunman, who informed him he terminated the killing because "I didn't have anyone else to murder."

The defense and Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer were also at odds during the trial, with the gunman's attorneys filing a move for her to resign, accusing her of prejudice, but she rejected.

The request came after Scherer chastised lead defense attorney Melisa McNeill and her team outside the presence of the jury, accusing them of being "unprofessional" for abruptly resting their case after only approximately 25 of the 80 witnesses they had planned to call had been summoned.