Judge wants Stoneman Douglas murder trial to start in January

The judge presiding over the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School murder case told attorneys Thursday she wants the trial to start in January.

Nikolas Cruz, 20, faces the death penalty if convicted of 17 counts of first-degree murder. He is also charged with 17 counts of attempted murder.

With defense lawyers all but conceding guilt, the only legal issue to be resolved is whether Cruz will spend the rest of his life in prison or be put to death. The defense has largely focused on preserving Cruz’s legal rights and keeping him off death row.

Broward Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer said she wanted to handle a litany of pretrial motions in the fall and begin the trial with jury selection in January. She noted it was a tentative starting date, subject to change.

“Keep those dates in mind as a goal moving forward,” she said.

On the civil side of the case, Broward Circuit Judge Patti Englander Henning poured cold water on a plan that would have brought Parkland parents face to face with one or more of the officials whose alleged failure to act enabled the Feb. 14, 2018, massacre at the Parkland high school.

Andrew Pollack, who is suing Cruz, former Broward Sheriff’s Deputy Scot Peterson, former school watchman Andrew Medina and several others for negligence, won the right in court to attend depositions of the defendants. But the judge said he will not be allowed to invite other Parkland parents to the proceedings, which are closed to the public.

Both Peterson and Medina had asked the judge to keep Pollack away from their depositions — Peterson citing social media posts in which Pollack suggested he needed help finding a tree from which someone could hang a noose, and Medina saying Pollack confronted him at a youth baseball game in Parkland on Feb. 6.