Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Central Scrutinizer on January 8, 2013 at 3:14pm

Aurora theater shooting: Cops took pill bottles from Holmes' apartment

By John Ingold
The Denver Post

CENTENNIAL — Aurora police seized four prescription bottles and immunization records when they searched theater-shooting suspect James Holmes' apartment in July, according to newly obtained filings in the murder case against Holmes.

The disclosures come in a back-and-forth between prosecutors and defense attorneys over whether those items should be subject to doctor-patient confidentiality. The judge ultimately ruled in October that prosecutors could keep the items.

Holmes is charged with 166 counts of murder, attempted murder and other offenses in the July 20 shooting rampage at an Aurora movie theater that left 12 dead and at least 58 injured.

The documents — many of which are heavily redacted — do not reveal what prescriptions the bottles were for or whether prosecutors intend to use them as evidence.

The documents simply add new droplets to the dribbled stream of information in the past several months about the theater shooting.

That stream, though, is expected to turn into a torrent starting Monday, when prosecutors begin laying out their case against Holmes in a critical hearing that will determine whether there is enough evidence for Holmes to face trial.

The proceeding — known jointly as a preliminary hearing and a "proof evident/presumption great" hearing — starts at 9 a.m. Monday in the Arapahoe County courthouse and is expected to last all week.

It is expected to be the first time detectives testify at length about the case and the first time prosecutors show pictures and video of the shooting scene.

The hearing may also be the first time Holmes' attorneys are able to thoroughly challenge prosecution evidence and present their own version of the story.

By the end of the week, the public will likely know far more than it does now about the planning, execution and, perhaps, motive behind one of the worst mass shootings in U.S. history.

But experts say the outcome of the hearing is little in doubt.

"Prosecutors don't lose preliminary hearings in Colorado," said legal analyst and former prosecutor Craig Silverman. "It's a minimal standard."

Silverman said he expects prosecutors to lay out an extensive timeline of the July 20 shooting, describing how the shooter moved through the theater and switched from one weapon to the next.

Prosecutors will have to present evidence related to each of the victims — the 12 people killed and the 70 others who were wounded or shot at.

"There's just so many victims, it could take a long time," Silverman said.

Attorney Dan Recht, though, said the prosecution and the defense will have deeper motives than just presenting and challenging evidence.

"The issue in this case is going to be ultimately whether Holmes is sane or not sane," Recht said. "This is not a whodunit case. ... The preliminary hearing is going to focus on, to the extent the parties can, the sanity issue."

Read more: Aurora theater shooting: Cops took pill bottles from Holmes' apartm... http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_22323293/aurora-theater-shooting-...

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by guest_blog on March 28, 2013 at 11:32am

Denver-area theater shooting suspect James Holmes offers guilty ple...

The prosecution has not yet responded to the offer, which came in a court filing Wednesday.

"Mr. Holmes is currently willing to resolve the case to bring the proceedings to a speedy and definite conclusion," the filing reads.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Central Scrutinizer on April 5, 2013 at 8:31pm

Killer on meds for depression, anxiety, panic attacks and obsessive-compulsive disorder

Whitten deactivated Holmes' ID so he could not get into university classrooms and laboratories, the documents say. That appeared to contradict what university officials have said: that Holmes was not banned from the university because of a threat but because his ID was deactivated as part of the normal student withdrawal process.

It was unclear whether Aurora police knew of Holmes' threats before they interviewed Whitten on July 21, the day after the mass shooting. Holmes, now 25, is accused of opening fire during a premiere of the latest Batman movie,"The Dark Knight Rises."

The once-promising neuroscience doctoral student at the university is charged with 166 counts of first-degree murder, attempted murder and weapons charges. He had flunked an oral exam in early June, began withdrawing from the university June 10 and met with Fenton on June 11.

Details about the case have been tightly sealed from the earliest days of the investigation. Yet on Thursday, District Judge Carlos A. Samour Jr. reversed previous rulings on public access and made public the arrest affidavit and 12 search warrants.

Samour took over from Chief Judge William Sylvester on Monday after Dist. Atty. George Brauchler of Colorado's 18th Judicial District announced he would seek the death penalty.

Sylvester withdrew because of the time constraints that come with a capital punishment trial, which would leave him little time for administrative duties. Holmes' trial, initially scheduled to begin Aug. 5, has been pushed back to February at the earliest.

Holmes' attorneys are widely expected to use an insanity defense. They had offered a guilty plea in return for a life sentence without possibility of parole.

The newly unsealed documents give glimpses not only into the early hours of the investigation but into Holmes himself. A search warrant for his apartment — which had been booby-trapped, presumably to kill anyone who entered — revealed a student's life that seemed at once mundane and bent on destruction.

Along with chemicals used for explosives, rounds of ammunition, pistol cases and paper targets, police seized movie posters, video games, apartment lease papers, numerous computers, 48 containers of beer and other liquor and stacks of school textbooks. They found prescription medication for sertraline, a generic version of Zoloft used to treat depression, panic disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder; and Clonazepam, usually prescribed to treat anxiety and panic attacks.

CENTENNIAL, Colo. — About a month before the Aurora movie theater rampage left 12 dead and at least 70 injured in July, James E. Holmes told a psychiatrist he was having homicidal thoughts and she concluded he could pose a danger to the public, according to documents released Thursday.

University of Colorado-Denver psychiatrist Dr. Lynne Fenton told a campus police officer about her concerns June 12, the day after she met with Holmes for their only session. Her fears were revealed Thursday when the new judge presiding over the case unsealed a host of search warrants and arrest documents.

Fenton also told Lynn Whitten, a campus police officer, that after she stopped seeing Holmes he "threatened and harassed her via email/text messages," the documents said.

MORE JOKER STORY

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by J.F.K. - Citronic357 on April 6, 2013 at 2:31am

http://bit.ly/11yHxf3

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Central Scrutinizer on February 19, 2014 at 7:29pm

Judge orders new mental exam in Colo. theater shooting

DENVER –  Colorado theater shooting defendant James Holmes must undergo a second psychiatric evaluation at the state mental hospital because the first was "incomplete and inadequate," the judge ruled Wednesday.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by truth on February 20, 2014 at 8:20am

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Charles Royer Sr. on January 26, 2015 at 12:44pm

Why is he now sporting the radical Islamist look? Is that what he looked like before he took on the Joker look?

Or is he Amish Mafia?

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Chip on January 27, 2015 at 6:53pm

Isaac Al shabazz
And he looks different in every picture you see of him.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Central Scrutinizer on January 20, 2015 at 7:17am

Jury selection begins in the trial of James Holmes, accused of movie theater massacre

Most mass shootings end with the suicide of the gunman. Not this one. In July 2012, James Holmes is alleged to have entered a movie theater in Aurora, Colo., during a midnight showing of the Batman movie The Dark Knight Rises and killed 12 people. Now, after a series of delays sought by his defense team, he goes on trial, with jury selection starting today. The court has summoned about 9,000 potential jurors who will be interviewed over the coming weeks to develop a panel that will decide guilt or innocence, and then whether he should be put to death. Holmes, now 27, has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.

In this 2012 file photo, Colorado movie theater shooting suspect James Holmes sits in Arapahoe County District Court in Centennial, Colo. (Photo: RJ Sangosti, AP)

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by truth on August 3, 2015 at 8:59pm

Colo. theater shooter eligible for death penalty

The jury unanimously decides that mitigating factors did not offset James Holmes's rampage.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by truth on August 7, 2015 at 8:40pm

Colo. (Reuters) - A Colorado jury sentenced movie rampage gunman James Holmes to life in prison on Friday, rejecting the death penalty for the 27-year-old who entered a midnight showing of a Batman movie wearing a gas mask, helmet and body armor and shot dead a dozen people.

Last month, the panel of nine women and three men found the former neuroscience graduate student guilty on all counts related to the July 2012 massacre. They were not unanimous, however, on the death penalty, which means Holmes receives an automatic life sentence with no possibility of parole.

After warning members of the public in the gallery against making any emotional outbursts, Arapahoe County District Court Judge Carlos Samour began reading the verdict forms.

On each count, he read, the panel had been unable to agree that Holmes should be executed by lethal injection, and that they understood that as a result, the court will impose a sentence of life imprisonment.

Holmes showed no reaction, staring straight ahead, hands in pockets.

• ▶ Reply

• ‹ Previous
• 1
• …
• 3
• 4
• 5
• Next ›
• Page