Colorado Movie Shooter James Holmes, Guilty

16 Jul, 2015

Colorado movie massacre gunman James Holmes was found guilty on Thursday of multiple counts of first degree murder, a verdict that enables prosecutors to seek the death penalty for the former graduate student who killed a dozen people and wounded 70 at a midnight premiere of a Batman film in 2012.

After a three-month trial in which they were presented with thousands of pieces of evidence and testimony from hundreds of witnesses, jurors deliberated for about a day and a half, then found Holmes guilty on all 165 counts against him. The panel of nine women and three men rejected the defense’s claim that Holmes was legally insane.

Before the jury was called in at around 4:00 p.m. local time Arapahoe County District Court Judge Carlos Samour warned the packed public gallery to refrain from emotional outbursts. In a hushed courtroom, he began reading the guilty verdicts and did not finish until more than an hour later.

Holmes showed no reaction. Wearing a blue, long-sleeved shirt and tan slacks, and tethered to the floor, the gunman stood beside his court-appointed attorneys, looking straight ahead with his hands in his pockets.

The trial now enters the punishment phase, when the jury must determine whether Holmes, 27, should be put to death or serve a mandatory life sentence with no possibility of parole.

That process is expected to last until late August, with both sides bringing a fresh round of witnesses.

Prosecutors are likely to call survivors or relatives of those killed, some of whom had called for Holmes to be executed and hugged members of the prosecution when testimony ended.

The defense had conceded that Holmes was the shooter, but presented expert witnesses who testified that the former neuroscience student was not in control of his actions because he suffered from schizophrenia and heard voices ordering him to kill.

The prosecution, meanwhile, called two court-appointed psychiatrists who concluded Holmes was legally sane when he plotted and carried out the July 2012 rampage at a multiplex in the Denver suburb of Aurora.

District Attorney George Brauchler said the gunman was unusually intelligent but socially inept, and harbored a long-standing hatred of humanity.

Brauchler said Holmes could not take it when he did poorly on exams at the University of Colorado, and broke up with the only girlfriend he had ever been intimate with.

The prosecution argued that Holmes’ detailed preparations for the attack showed he knew what he was doing, and knew it was wrong. They presented evidence about his purchases of guns, tear gas and body armor. They also showed how he conducted online research into bomb-making so he could booby-trap his apartment before he left for the cinema.

Holmes rigged the bombs and turned loud music on the stereo, hoping someone would open the door and trigger a deadly blast. The devices were later defused by a police bomb squad.

Holmes, who graduated with honors from the University of California, Riverside, had no previous criminal record.

Reuters 

Image 10NewsHunt twitter

Mentioned In This Post: