“…growing in her polluted womb…” This woman has a way with words.

Living in jail currently, had a messed up childhood, have to testify about that childhood (extremely triggering, I’m sure), and seeing you’re baby brother that you wanted to keep 20+ years later on trial for murdering 17 people. I would have to be sedated.

Only for people who are interested: earlier in the trial day Cruz asked his lawyer about his sister and she told him "She's very nervous. She's your sister, she loves you. You can talk to her." And the sister mouthed "I love you" to Cruz and kept looking at him and smiling/sobbing.
I just can't deal with all of the misery surrounding both sides of this trial. And yes, I can have empathy for both the victims and the defendant, empathy isn't a limited resource.

This was very hard to watch. Danielle never had a shot at living a normal life, not with having a mother like Brenda. It is very clear, at least to me, that talking about childhood was very triggering — you can see waves of pain flash over her face as she recounts each memories. My heart really goes out to her. She did a great job testifying.

This testimony, her way of speaking, the pain and exhaustion she expresses, provides such a sad story. Truly. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of such a tragic family.

I started tearing up when she started talking about running to the neighbors dog she always used to play with. As someone who grew up in an abusive home with addict parents, I used to turn to animals for comfort. They honestly saved me. You can tell she got emotional talking about that part.

Fetal alcohol spectrum disorder is a devastating condition. It's not a free pass, definitely not, but his mother made his brain a terrible place.

I love my mother so much. I am so lucky to be raised by her. I’m going to call her right now and tell her how much I appreciate everything she has done for me.

The way she glances over at Nik with a mixture of pain and love it's just incomprehensible. She came across as extremely genuine in this testimony, yet at the same time extremely broken. When she has to pause and take a deep breath before she recounts her trauma just screams PTSD. I'm in no way excusing Parkland & he deserves the worst sentence possible but I struggle to believe this would of happened without the actions of Brenda.

When she thought the lawyer said “ Brenda was a mother to you”. She looked like she was gonna pop off 🫠

This is the most visually attentive and engaged I’ve seen Nikolas this entire trial.

It's amazing that you can see the compassion in the eyes of the victims families. After all they've been through they still feel for the suffering of others.

I was a teacher for many years. So many children have childhoods like this... so sad and tragic...

"Who lived in the apartment?"
"Just me, her and Nikolas" - meaning Nik in utero. The look of love she gave Nik at this moment speaks to the better side of human nature. He may be a despicable murderer but she still calls him "my little baby brother. . . I held him in my arms and looked at him and he looked back at me. He was full of life. I asked Brenda, 'Can we keep him?'". So heartbreaking.

As a social worker, I can SEE the trauma living in her, even with the sound off. She is often in the very moment of her childhood traumas. This is probably one of the first times she has told her story like this.

What she desperately needs is trauma-informed therapy, such as EMDR. When people are in pain, they become desperate to escape it. If our prison system would provide actual mental health treatment, we would pay far less to house people.

Without treatment, she has almost no chance to stop the trajectory her life is on. Our prison system is the largest provider of mental health care in our country. That should scare all of us. Even if we say "too bad, they don't deserve treatment," it still wastes money for our taxpayers when we do not provide it. I'm only hapf-way through, so I don't know why she's incarcerated. But most people DO get released at some point. But statistics show that she'll probably recitivate because she's probably more traumatized than before she went in. Throwing people away (in the richest country in history) hurts ALL of us.

This is why not everyone should have kids.  These poor kids.  No excuse for parkland but maybe they wouldn't be this damaged. So sad how people can do this to kids 😞.  Prayers to all involved 🙏 ❤

She is quite the story teller. I was able to follow her timeline and picture everything she was saying. Such a sad childhood. 😔 I am so grateful for my childhood and this helped me understand the life some children have.
Edit to add: I didn't say the word story to imply she was making it up at all. I ment she was able to tell her story very well. Everyone has a story and she tells hers with such detail as she lived it and can still hear and feel those things she went through.

She couldn’t find her cat… 🐱 it was probably the closest family to her that truly love her! 💔

I had a mom like this. Went to foster care at the age of 12... I'm 38 now and doing fine but wow, this brings back sad memories of my childhood in the 1990s.

So sad how cycles seriously do repeat… her record looks as bad as her mom now.. But when she was telling her story I just saw that little girl who was scared, innocent, and angry..