Nikolas Cruz reportedly set for $800,000 inheritance windfall

The accused killer of 17 in Florida may not need a public defender

Feb 21, 2018

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Nikolas Cruz, the suspect in the Parkland, Florida, school shooting, is set to get hundreds of thousands of dollars in inheritance after the death of his mother.

According to TV station WSVN-7, Cruz and his brother will reportedly be getting almost $800,000 from a life insurance policy on their mother, Lynda, who died in November and left them the huge sum of money. The brothers are expected to gain several hundred thousand dollars more from the sale of her home.

Too rich for a public defender

Because of this, Cruz would be considered too wealthy to have a lawyer appointed to him from the state for free and would need to retain a private lawyer for his upcoming trial. The public defender is reportedly filing a motion to determine whether or not Cruz is too wealthy for the appointment of the state-provided lawyer.

It’s also possible for the families of the victims from the shooting to sue Cruz for that money, thereby freezing those assets.

Cruz went on a rampage at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School last Wednesday just before the end of the school day, wielding a high-powered rifle that left 17 people dead and wounded another 23 including students and staff. He has since been charged with 17 counts of First-Degree murder.

White nationalist link hoax

The 19-year-old gunman was at first thought to be connected with a white nationalist group called the Republic of Florida, which wants to create a white-only state there, due to claims from one of its leaders.

But law enforcement officials said they found no evidence linking Cruz with the group and the rumor seems to have been perpetuated by white nationalist Internet trolls.

Jordan Jereb, the leader of the group, was quoted in a blog post from the Anti-Defamation league saying that Cruz “acted on his own behalf of what he just did and he’s solely responsible for what he just did,” but that was picked up and widely reported by ABC News and the Associated Press.

According to Politico, hours later, law enforcement officials said there was nothing linking Cruz to racist groups and Jereb himself said he’d been the victim of a “prank.”