Shooter tells jury mercy is up to them

Associated Press

SEATTLE — In a rambling, disjointed speech Thursday, the man convicted in the fatal 1999 Lake Union shipyard shootings maintained his innocence, yet told jurors considering whether to put him to death that he was not asking for mercy.

"Before I was asking for mercy," said Kevin Cruz, who has been diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic. "That’s at your discretion. I ain’t asking for mercy."

Cruz did not testify during his trial.

A King County Superior Court jury was to begin deliberating today. Jurors have to decide whether to sentence Cruz to death or to life in prison without parole for fatally shooting two men and wounding two others at the Northlake Shipyard on Nov. 3, 1999. Cruz briefly worked at the shipyard months before the shootings.

The same jurors convicted him of aggravated first-degree and attempted murder last month.

"Y’all found me guilty of a crime that I am still denying," Cruz, 32, of SeaTac told them.

In closing arguments Thursday afternoon, King County prosecutor Steve Fogg told jurors that Cruz was in control at the time of the shootings. He planned the attack, then deliberately escaped and changed his appearance — evidence he was organized and not affected by his illness, Fogg said.

"He made these choices because he was angry, and he responded the way he always had — with violence," Fogg said. "It was a crime driven not by mental illness, but by anger."

Cruz "set off a chain of misery that will not end," Fogg said.

Cruz told a different story.

"If somebody provokes me in any way, I will defend myself to the best of my ability," he said, pacing as he spoke. "I will fight back. I have fought back, but as far as starting something, starting a fight with anyone … I don’t remember anything like that."

Defense attorney Tony Savage stressed how mentally ill his client is and urged jurors not to give him the death penalty.

"He’s sick and you all know it," Savage told the jury. "It is the most serious form of mental illness there is."

Cruz "has a lot to answer for," Savage said, but he doesn’t have to answer for being mentally ill, or for being beaten as a child.

"If you really want to punish him, let him deteriorate for 20 to 30 years," Savage said.

The murder weapon, a 9 mm Glock handgun, was found in Cruz’s backpack in Gasworks Park two months after the shootings. When Cruz was arrested, he identified the backpack as his, but not the gun and holster.

DNA technology enabled the Washington State Patrol Crime Lab to link Cruz to the items in the backpack.

Prosecutors alleged Cruz had a grudge against Northlake Shipyard workers, where he did odd jobs as a temporary employee during a four-month stint at the shipyard before being fired in January 1999.

"They say I’m crazy, got a few loose screws," Cruz said. "Fine. I’ve been told that many, many times."