Parkland School Shooting Trial Postponed To Summer

FORT LAUDERDALE, FL — A Florida judge on Thursday agreed to delay the trial in the Parkland school slayings to sometime during the summer of 2020.

Broward County Judge Elizabeth Scherer said it made sense to push back the trial of the man charged in the Marjory Stoneman Douglas killings since the Florida Supreme Court has yet to say whether it would accept at least one pending appeal from the defense.

Jury selection had been scheduled to commence Jan. 27, weeks before the second anniversary of one of the most horrific school shootings on American soil. (See also Parkland Strong: Moment Of Silence Marks One Year Since Tragedy.)

An emotionally troubled former student is accused of killing 17 students and faculty members in the freshman building of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School campus on Valentine's Day afternoon 2018.

Patch is withholding the name of the 21-year-old defendant based on his declarations and on pleas from the families of the students and faculty killed in the attack.

Scherer scheduled a calendar call on the case for 1 p.m. March 23 but did not give a specific date when the murder trial would get underway. The rescheduled date is likely to be announced during the calendar call.

Prosecutors from the Broward County State Attorney's Office stated previously in court documents that, "in an abundance of caution," the state would not object to moving the trial date to May.

The defendant may still find himself in court on Jan. 27 for the start of a related trial on charges that he attacked a deputy in the Fort Lauderdale jail where he has been held since the mass shooting.

Scherer has scheduled a status hearing in that case for 1 p.m. Jan. 13, with a possible trial date of Jan. 27.

According to court documents, BSO Sgt. Beltran told the prisoner to "not drag his sandals on the ground while walking around the dayroom area" of the jail back in November of 2018, to which the prisoner responded with an obscene gesture.

"Beltran advised that as he began to stand up, [the prisoner] rushed him and struck him in the face," court documents said. "Beltran indicated that he and [the prisoner] then got into a physical altercation that resulted in Beltran going to the ground and [the prisoner] taking Beltran's conductive electronic weapon ... from him."