PORTLAND, OR (KPTV) -

A Portland man guilty of stalking victims of the July 2012 mass shooting at a Colorado movie theater was sentenced to probation Friday.

Purfield was arrested in April in northeast Portland. Colorado officers contacted Portland police detectives two months earlier regarding unwanted phone calls, emails and social media contacts made to family members of the theater shooting that killed 12 people and injured dozens more during a showing of The Dark Knight Rises.

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Purfield's trial had been scheduled for Wednesday. He will now be sentenced Friday to what will likely be a year of mental-health court, where he will have to regularly check in with a specialist.

Purfield also will be ordered not to contact the relatives of those who were injured or killed at the screening of "The Dark Knight Rises."

Aurora police contacted Portland officers in late February and asked them to help with the investigation of the 45-year-old.

Prosecutor Kirsten Snowden told The Oregonian: "We just want to stop the behavior and get him help."

7NEWS reporter Amanda Kost has received messages from Purfield through Facebook. In several, he wrote about empty coffins or missing bodies of the victims.

"I'd like to know why none of the family members I spoke with will tell the truth in an interview with the news media and why the news media permits you all to lie. Every one of you is a lier. The list of liers includes the police officers, Chief, Governor, medical examiner, news reporters, public defender, FBI, ATF, Cinemark President and CEO, funeral homes, family and friends of "victims" that attenend funerals with empty coffins. All liers," said one message from February 1.

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http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/movie-theater-shooting/portland-oregon-man-pleads-guilty-to-harassing-families-of-theater-shooting-victims

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