Accused Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz has been given permission to meet his lawyer to pursue his late adoptive mother’s reported $800,000 inheritance.
The 19-year-old is alleged to have opened fire at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland earlier this month, killing 17 people and injuring 14 others.
Now it has emerged he signed a retainer agreement with lawyer Audra Simovitch on December 13 to pursue his share of Lynda Cruz’s estate, the New York Post reported.
Accused Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz tried to secure a reported $800,000 inheritance weeks before his alleged killing spree, court records have revealed. He remains locked up at the Broward County Jail after being charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder
Broward County Probate Division Judge Charles Greene granted Simovitch authority to meet with Cruz.
Greene also ruled that the county Public Defender’s Office, representing Cruz, ‘shall not interfere’ with the lawyer’s efforts to meet him.
The teenager is currently locked up at the Broward County Jail on murder charges after the shooting at his former high school.
The brothers are pictured above holding the ashes of their adoptive mother Lynda Cruz who died from pneumonia in November aged 68
Zachary Cruz, the 18-year-old brother of Florida high school gunman Nikolas Cruz, was seen skateboarding near his home in Lake Worth in southern Florida on Friday
The order, signed Friday, was in response to an emergency petition in which Simovitch accused the Public Defender’s Office of ‘obstructing justice’ by denying her access to Cruz.
Florida law does not allow Cruz to have a free defense lawyer if he has or expects to have more than $2,500 in assets other than a home and a vehicle.
Simovitch filed court papers on behalf of Rocxanne Deschamps – who is raising Cruz’s younger brother Zachary – the day after the high school slaughter.
They stated that Deschamps ‘has an interest’ in Lynda Cruz’s estate because she cares for her adopted son Zachary, who turned 18 on Wednesday.
Lynda died jn November aged 68 and her late husband Roger passed away in 2014 aged 67.
According to the filing, both sons are each entitled to 50 per cent of her estate.
Before the massacre Nikolas was living with the family of Kimberly and James Snead and told them he would inherit at least $800,000, the New York Post reported.
Simovitch could meet with Cruz as early as March 1.