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The jailbird sister who helped Parkland shooter Nikolas Cruz cheat the death penalty is a hellraiser who enjoys moonshine, phone sex and lesbian romps behind bars, according to a former inmate lover.
Danielle Woodard, 36, has spent the past two years locked up in a Miami detention center awaiting trial for terrorizing an old lady in an alleged carjacking – her 17th felony charge.
But the heavy-set redhead has continued to break the law even while behind bars, according to a former inmate who told DailyMail.com she had a months-long fling with Woodard that turned violent and abusive.
Lillian Menendez was released in April but reveals she had to get a restraining order because Woodard kept bombarding her with threatening calls from a jailhouse payphone.
Danielle Woodard, the daughter of Nikolas Cruz’s biological mom Brenda Woodard, faces life in prison for targeting an elderly woman
Former inmate Lillian Menendez tells DailyMail.com she had a months-long fling with Woodard that turned violent and abusive. She asked to not have her face shown in photos and her house arrest bracelet can be seen around her ankle
Lifting the lid on Woodard’s alleged wild antics, Menendez, 42, told DailyMail.com: ‘We had many intimate times. Everyone knew we were an item but the officers, as long as they didn’t catch us in the act, were ok with it.
Menendez says she met Woodard in 2020 when she spent two weeks at the Metro West Detention Center in Miami for cocaine possession
‘She would take massive amounts of pills. She would get fruit and ferment it and make alcohol. She still gets high in there. Danielle does whatever Danielle wants to do – even in jail.’
Woodard’s lawyer Mark Lowry denies the claims and points out she is an easy target because of her association with Cruz, who shot dead 17 kids and staff at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.
Woodard made headlines in August when she was freed for the day to give tearful testimony in her brother’s defense and bolster claims he was doomed to a life of deranged crime due to brain damage suffered in the womb.
She told his sentencing trial how their late mom Brenda Woodard smoked drugs and drank heavily while pregnant with Cruz, who grew up with adoptive parents.
Brenda, who died last year, was a ‘horrible’ mother, according to Woodard, who told the court: ‘She introduced me to a life that no child should ever be introduced to. She had no regard for his life or my life.’
Jurors ultimately agreed that the 24-year-old mass murderer should be spared death and instead sentenced to life in prison for the Feb 2018 massacre – the same mandatory punishment Woodard faces under Florida law if she’s convicted of another felony.
Menendez said of Woodard (pictured), ‘She would take massive amounts of pills. She would get fruit and ferment it and make alcohol. She still gets high in there. Danielle does whatever Danielle wants to do – even in jail’
Woodard – a mom-of-three and wannabe rapper who goes by the street name Skiddlez – is in jail awaiting trial for trying to steal a 72-year-old woman’s car in 2020 and injuring a man who clung to the vehicle to try to stop her driving off
Woodard – a mom-of-three and wannabe rapper who goes by the street name Skiddlez – is accused of stealing a 72-year-old woman’s car in 2020 and injuring a man who clung to the vehicle to try to stop her driving off.
Woodard will serve at least 15 years, a mandatory felony sentence, if convicted at trial
‘Danielle was not ashamed to say Nikolas was her brother, in fact it was something she used as leverage,’ Menendez told DailyMail.com.
‘If anyone did anything to her she would say she was being discriminated against because of him, which was completely false.
‘She would say she had to get real fixed up if she ever had to testify because she would have a lot of men send her fan mail.
‘Danielle definitely didn’t do it just to help Nikolas, she did it to help herself. She wanted the attention and the sympathy.
‘She thinks it will help with her own case to have people think she was an innocent child who did these crimes because of Brenda.
‘Brenda had her problems but she was not the monster she was painted as. She was clean for 20 years prior to her passing.
‘And if her mother was so terrible, why didn’t Danielle try to do things differently in her own life?’
Menendez says she met Woodard in 2020 when she spent two weeks at the Metro West Detention Center in Miami for cocaine possession.
The pair stayed in touch after her release and Menendez claims she deposited up to $150 each week into Woodard’s commissary account so that her imprisoned pal could buy snacks, clothing and other items.
She even struck up a close friendship with Brenda, visiting her at a federal housing complex and comforting her in her final days as she succumbed to cancer, aged 65.
Menendez had to get a restraining order because Woodard kept bombarding her with threatening calls from a jailhouse payphone
In November 2021 Menendez breached her probation and was sent back to jail where the two women rekindled their tryst.
‘It was the biggest mistake of my life. She was totally controlling, totally manipulative,’ Menendez recalled.
‘She would listen in on my phone calls, she wouldn’t let me talk to anyone. She would pull my hair, slap me.
‘If I did anything around other people that she didn’t like she would pinch me under the table.’
Menendez claims Woodard operated what she described as a ‘phone sex venture’ from the unit for lonely male relatives, husbands or friends of other inmates.
Her ‘clients’ would pay Woodard by depositing money into her commissary which she spent on chips, cookies, tuna and coffee.
‘She is having phone sex with numerous men as we speak,’ Menendez alleged of her former pal, whose weight has ballooned to 185 pounds behind bars because of all the comfort eating.
‘You’d be amazed how many men would participate in sexual activity over the phone knowing a girl is behind bars and isn’t getting any action, it’s a fascination for a lot of them,’ she added.
‘They will put $40, $50, sometimes $100 dollars into the commissary. She had two duffle bags full of food when I got there. It got to the point she didn’t eat the jail food.’
Anything Woodard didn’t need would be traded for an assortment of pills, tranquilizers and medications which she mixed with moonshine brewed from fermented fruit and hid in laundry bags, Menendez said.
Menendez was moved into a different unit in February when guards spotted her bruises, according to court filings. Woodard began to harass her father instead with daily phone calls, it’s alleged.
In June, two months after her release, Menendez sought an injunction after Woodard continued to call her ‘more than ten times daily’, according to her petition.
When Woodard allegedly made more calls in September she was hit with a misdemeanor charge of violating the injunction.
‘Danielle would say she was sick without me, she would die without me,’ said Menendez. ‘I told her to please leave me alone and be strong. I couldn’t take it anymore.’
Brenda gave Nikolas and younger brother Zachary up for adoption as newborn babies and the pair were raised by Lynda Cruz until she died suddenly from pneumonia in 2017, three months before the Parkland massacre.
Menendez struck up a close friendship with Brenda (pictured together) visiting her at a federal housing complex and comforting her in her final days as she succumbed to cancer, aged 65
Brenda Woodard gave Nikolas and younger brother Zachary up for adoption as newborn babies
‘Brenda had her problems but she was not the monster she was painted as. She was clean for 20 years prior to her passing,’ Menendez said. She’s pictured with Woodard’s mother Brenda
The boys escaped had their biological mom’s malign influence but Woodard spent her youngest years bouncing between relations as Brenda served jail time for offences including battery, burglary, resisting arrest, panhandling and cocaine possession.
At age 12 Woodard was taken into care and, only days after her 13th birthday, she recorded her first felony arrest for car theft. In 2003 Danielle was arrested for taking a firearm into her school in a chilling echo of her brother’s future crimes.
By then she had embarked on a life of crime that would become every bit as deplorable as her mother’s, racking up arrests for battery with a deadly weapon, car theft and elder abuse.
In January 2010 Woodard earned an eight-year sentence for credit card fraud, cocaine possession and the attempted second degree murder of a police officer.
Released early, she bit three cops in 2016 – ripping through one officer’s pants – as they tried to bundle her into a squad car, earning herself another three years behind bars.
She will serve at least 15 years, a mandatory felony life sentence, if convicted at trial of her latest offense which unfolded January 6, 2020 at a parking plaza in Miami Gardens.
According to court filings, Woodard approached the two unnamed victims and asked for a ride as they donated items while leaving their Honda Accord’s engine running and doors open.
When they refused, the homeless felon got in anyway, pushing the elderly woman out of the sedan while driving off with her younger male companion clinging to the door.
He jumped clear as she sped into the street and crashed into trees, according to prosecutors.
Woodard recorded her first felony arrest just after her 13th birthday, has has racked up at least 17 other offenses
Woodard was freed for the day to give tearful testimony in her brother’s defense and bolster claims he was doomed to a life of deranged crime due to brain damage suffered in the womb
While Woodard languishes behind bars, Menendez says she’s sought treatment for her drug problem and has been clean for the past 11 months.
She operates several businesses and provides counseling for other young women who have sought help for similar addiction issues.
But if there is one former felon who she can’t ever see on the straight and narrow, it’s Woodard.
‘She used to say, I hope my victims get Covid and die so I don’t have to stand trial,’ Menendez added. ‘Danielle has no remorse for the things she’s done.’
Woodard does not appear to have a lawyer in relation to Menendez’s restraining order.
Lowry, who is representing her in the carjacking case, told DailyMail.com: ‘On behalf of my client I would deny the allegations.
‘I would say the person who is giving you these stories is trying to bolster her claim that she needs an order of protection.
‘The petitioner is just trying to inflame the public opinion against Miss Woodard whose reputation is already tarnished by her relationship with her brother.’