The poisoned apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.

The Parkland shooter’s biological mother has an extensive criminal rap sheet — often for violent crimes — and used drugs while she was pregnant with him.

Brenda Woodard, 62, did not raise 19-year-old shooter Nikolas Cruz, but it appears she passed on her penchant for violence.

She’s been arrested more than two dozen times since the 1980s, including for drug offenses, car theft, weapons possession, burglary, domestic violence and battery charges — serving several stints in prison, including 18 months for stealing a car and fleeing from a cop, according to court and prison records.

In 2010, she was charged for trying to beat a roommate with a tire iron at a senior-living facility.

Cruz’s half-sister Danielle Woodard is currently imprisoned as a habitual offender and not scheduled for release until 2020. She has been convicted of second-degree attempted murder and cocaine possession, as well as battery on and fleeing from a law enforcement officer.

Cruz was adopted as a baby by Roger and Lynda Cruz — both of whom had died before the Feb. 14 massacre in which Cruz killed 17 people at his former high school.

Cruz claims he snapped after Lynda’s death.

But his biological family’s history of violence could actually help Cruz — who is charged with 17 counts of murder and 17 counts of attempted murder — get a lighter sentence if he’s found guilty.

“It is not necessarily her past, but how her past contributed to his genetic makeup,” said former state and federal prosecutor David Weinstein. “Her use of drugs and alcohol while she was pregnant with him, and how her genetic makeup was passed on to him.

“It might not carry the day, but it will give the jurors another mitigating factor to consider.”

If he’s convicted, 12 jurors would have to unanimously agree on the death penalty — otherwise Cruz will rot in jail for the rest of his life.

His court-appointed lawyers have offered a guilty plea in exchange for prosecutors taking the death penalty off the table, but the state has not accepted the offer.

Broward Public Defender Howard Finkelstein declined to say how the teen’s past could impact the case, but reiterated his office’s call for a plea deal.

“Lock him up forever. Throw away the key and never speak his name,” he said. “Maybe it will curtail some of the pain and hurt that certainly will happen if this case continues on a decades-long march to death.”

Woodard did not respond to a request for comment.

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