James Holmes guilty of murder in theater massacre
, Source
CENTENNIAL, Colo. â Rejecting his insanity claim, a jury convicted James Holmes of first-degree murder Thursday for killing 12 people when he shot up a packed movie theater three years ago.
The 27-year-old former neuroscience researcher at the University of Colorado may now face the death penalty.
His July 20, 2012, attack in the Denver suburb of Aurora also wounded 70 people for which he was charged with attempted murder. The first guilty verdict was announced about 4:15 p.m., MT (6:15 p.m. ET). It's expected to take about 90 minutes to read through all 165 counts.
Wearing khakis and a blue dress shirt, Holmes stood impassively, hands in his pockets, as Judge Carlos Samour Jr. repeatedly said "guilty" as he read through the jury forms, which stretched to 658 pages.
The critical question for jurors deliberating Holmes' fate was whether they believed he was legally sane the night he opened on an audience gathered to watch the latest Batman movie.
The issue formed the final day of arguments before the jury began deliberating Wednesday.
Arapahoe County District Attorney George Brauchler dismissed the diagnoses and brain scans indicating that Holmes suffered from schizophrenia, saying they did not prove that his ability to tell right from wrong was impaired, which is the legal standard. "He wasn't insane," the prosecutor said.
He argued that two court-appointed psychiatrists had found Holmes sane at the time of the attack.
"The law doesn't care what he thinks is right or wrong," Brauchler told jurors on the 49th day of the trial. "It cares whether he thinks that society thinks it's right or wrong."
In his final argument, however, defense attorney Dan King told jurors they "cannot divorce the mental illness from this case or from Mr. Holmes. Because the mental illness caused this to happen. Only the mental illness and nothing else."
He said that to "pretend that Mr. Holmes is not mentally ill is misconstruing the evidence."
Recapping evidence, testimony, victims' stories and Holmes' statements to doctors, Brauchler painted a portrait of deception and meticulous planning leading to the shooting.
"He wasn't insane when he did it," Brauchler said, interspersing his argument with photos of the victims. "We know that he intends to kill everyone that he can inside the theater."
During the trial, prosecutors played numerous hours of video recorded interviews conducted with Holmes by a court-appointed psychiatrist.
In the recordings made nearly two years after the shootings, Holmes rarely showed any emotion or regret. Instead, he matter-of-factly explained how he faked a phone call to duck outside as the previews rolled, put a clamp on the emergency exit to hold it open, and then returned a few minutes later as The Dark Knight Rises began playing.
Police and prosecutors say Holmes also rigged his apartment with homemade explosives and incendiary compounds, along with gasoline and napalm made from Styrofoam cups.
