'Irrational': Parkland School Shooter Nikolas Cruz Believes He Will One Day Be FREED From Prison

Even more shocking is the fact that, according to a Texas counselor who spoke to Cruz last year, the 23-year-old had an “epiphany” in jail that made him want to “help people.”

“He had some sort of epiphany while he was in [jail] that would focus his thoughts on being able to help people,” Wesley Center, a counselor and expert who studied Cruz’s mental health, told prosecutors during a recent pretrial interview. “His life's purpose was to be helping others.”

Cruz’s defense team is set to make their case this week to allow Center and other mental health experts to testify in court regarding what their tests showed, although the prosecution – who rested their case calling for the death penalty on August 4 – have fought to bar Center and the other experts from testifying.

So far, the jurors set to sentence Cruz to the death penalty or life without parole have toured the Parkland, Florida high school where Cruz’s murder spree took place.

The jurors have also reportedly watched surveillance footage from the day of the massacre, viewed crime scene and autopsy photos and listened to testimony from students and teachers who survived the deadly shooting as well as parents and other family members of Cruz’s 17 victims.

Although Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer, who is overseeing the death penalty trial against Cruz, may bar the convicted murderer’s mental health test, Cruz’s defense team reportedly has other evidence proving Cruz suffered from brain damage and a slew of traumatic experiences.