Broward Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer announced on Oct. 13 that a divided jury recommended life in prison without the possibility of parole as punishment for the Parkland school shooter on count 11 of first-degree murder.
Count 11 of 17 in the penalty phase is for the murder of Aaron Feis who Nikolas Cruz killed on Feb. 14, 2018, at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, according to Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer.
Feis, 37, quickly drove his golf cart from the school’s north parking lot to the 1200 building’s west side and opened the stairwell door despite the gunshots, records show.
Feis ran right into Cruz, who shot him twice, according to Chief Assistant State Attorney Mike Satz. Broward Sheriff’s Office Deputy Art Perry found Feis on the ground, records show.
Dr. Terrill Tops, a forensic pathologist with the Palm Beach County Medical Examiner’s Office, performed his autopsy. He said during his testimony in court on Aug. 1 that Feis suffered two torso wounds.
Feis graduated from Marjory Stoneman Douglas in 1999, and he returned to his alma mater to work as an assistant football coach and a school monitor in 2002.
Feis’s students and colleagues remembered him as a hero at The Church of the Glades in Coral Springs. He was survived by his daughter Arielle, who was eight years old when he died, and his wife Melisa Feis.
Interactive graphic: Understanding the choices jurors made on the verdict form
A court representative reads the Feis’s family victim impact statement in court
Dr. Terrill Tops testifies about the autopsy
Interactive graphic on the penalty phase