Expert: School shooter faked fetal alcohol symptoms
Prosecutors trying to sentence Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz are trying to show he is faking having fetal alcohol spectrum disorder
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Prosecutors spent several boring hours Tuesday trying to prove Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz purposely did poorly on tests administered to see if he suffers from fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, the primary reason his attorneys say he murdered 17 people four years ago.
But after presenting dozens of charts showing the results of IQ tests and other examinations and long explanations of averages and standard deviations that even had the judge joking she understood why some jurors were drinking strong Cuban coffee, assistant prosecutor Jeff Marcus pulled his trump card.
He turned to the simplest test given to Cruz: How fast can the confessed killer tap his dominant left index finger?
During tests administered earlier this year by experts his attorneys hired, Cruz averaged 22 taps in 10 seconds. Prosecution neuropsychologist Robert Denney said the average male scores 51 on that test and a 22 would be a score only someone with a severe brain injury that causes physical stiffness would tally.
