On Wednesday, Nikolas Cruz pleaded guilty to murder in the Parkland, Florida, high school shooting that left 17 people dead.
After answering a long list of questions from Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer intended at proving his mental fitness, Cruz, 23, entered his pleas in front of a dozen families of victims in a courtroom packed with them.
For those injured in the February 14, 2018 incident at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, just north of Fort Lauderdale, he was charged with 17 counts of murder and 17 counts of attempted first-degree murder.
Cruz will face a punishment trial to determine whether he will be sentenced to death or life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Scherer intends to start screening jurors next month with the aim of beginning testimony in January.
During a hearing last week, Cruz's counsel announced his intention to plead guilty.
Fred Guttenberg, whose 14-year-old daughter Jaime was killed in the massacre, said he paid a visit to her grave this week to seek strength to get through the hearing on Wednesday.
He described her as "the toughest, wisest person I ever knew." "My daughter was always fighting for what she believed in. My daughter loathed bullies and would throw herself in the middle of a bully to put an end to it."
The guilty pleas will pave the way for a penalty trial, where a jury of 12 will decide whether Cruz should be sentenced to death or life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Scherer intends to test thousands of potential jurors because of the case's publicity. Hearings will take place in November and December, with testimony expected to begin in January.
According to investigators, on Valentine's Day 2018, Cruz went on a seven-minute rampage across a three-story building at Stoneman Douglas, killing 14 students and three staff members.
He allegedly used an AR-15 semiautomatic weapon to shoot people in the corridors and classrooms.
Cruz had been ejected from Stoneman Douglas a year prior, following a pattern of threatening, frightening, odd, and occasionally violent behavior that began in preschool.
Following the shootings, some Stoneman Douglas students started the March for Our Lives campaign, which advocates for stricter gun laws across the country.
Cruz's attorneys had offered to have him plead guilty in exchange for a life sentence days after the massacre, claiming that doing so would save the community the emotional pain of having to relive the crime at trial.
However, Long-serving Broward State Attorney Mike Satz turned down the offer, believing Cruz merited the death penalty and nominated himself as lead prosecutor.
After 44 years as state attorney, Satz, 79, stepped down in January but remained Cruz's chief prosecutor.
Harold Pryor, his successor, is opposed to the death punishment but has stated that he will uphold the law. Even in liberal Broward County, where Democrats outnumber Republicans by more than two to one, he never accepted the defense offer, which would have been problematic as an elected official.
Cruz's defenders will be able to argue during the sentencing hearing that he accepted responsibility for his acts if he pleads guilty.
