Self-portraits: Holmes sticks out tongue, has guns
CENTENNIAL, Colo. (AP) - The photos were chilling and enigmatic, just like their subject. In the pictures, taken on his IPhone hours before the Aurora movie theater massacre, accused gunman James Holmes mugs for the camera, sticks out his tongue and smiles as he holds a Glock under his face and displays his arsenal arrayed on his bed.
Prosecutors who displayed the pictures at a hearing that ended Wednesday argued the photos display "identity, deliberation and extreme indifference."
Holmes' attorneys - who have been setting up an insanity defense and said they might present testimony about the defendant's mental health - decided not to call any witnesses.
A judge is due to rule by Friday whether prosecutors presented enough evidence to justify Holmes standing trial for more than 160 felony counts stemming from the July 20 attack, which killed 12 people and injured 70. Holmes, 25, may enter a formal plea that day.
The three-day hearing occurred as the nation still recovers from the shock of last month's shooting at a Connecticut elementary school that killed 20 children and six adults. It wrapped up just as the Colorado Legislature began its session and pledged to tackle gun violence, and Vice President Joe Biden met with families of victims as part of the White House's own gun control push.
Prosecutors presented the most detailed description of the attack and Holmes' alleged months of preparation. But they never addressed the mystery of why Holmes opened fire six weeks after leaving a neuroscience graduate program.
Legal experts say evidence against Holmes is so strong that the case may end in a plea deal. That would make the hearing the only detailed presentation of the evidence that victims, their families and the public will hear.
Holmes sat impassively through much of the proceedings, watching intently as a surveillance video showed him entering the theater lobby. Family members, who had a better view of Holmes' face than the media did in the packed courtroom, said he smiled multiple times, especially when the photos were shown.
"He's not crazy, he's evil," said Tom Teves, whose 24-year-old son Alex was killed in the attack. "He's an animal."
Prosecutor Karen Pearson argued that Holmes meticulously planned the attack, starting with the online purchase of two tear gas canisters on May 10, followed by buying online 6,295 rounds of ammunition, and body armor, as well as going to local sporting goods stores to purchase an assault rifle, shotgun and two Glock pistols. He bought his ticket for opening night of "The Dark Knight Returns" nearly two weeks before the attack and visited the theater early, photographing the layout.
He rigged an elaborate booby-trap system in his apartment with three different triggers, hoping the detonation would distract police from the carnage he planned a few miles away, investigators testified. The trap was never sprung.
About six hours before the attack, Holmes took a series of photos on his phone. In one he wears black contact lenses and a black stocking cap, with two tufts of his dyed-red hair sticking out like a pair of horns. In another he holds a pistol beneath his face, twisted into a grin. In a third, much of his arsenal - the assault rifle and shotgun, magazines for ammunition, tactical gear and bags to carry rounds - is displayed on a red sheet on his bed.
When Holmes burst into the theater and opened fire just after midnight July 20 there were as many as 1,500 people crowded into the seats and in the auditorium next door, prosecutors said. Some of Holmes' bullets pierced the wall and injured people in the adjacent theater. Holmes fired about 70 rounds, many of which apparently hit multiple people, and was only prevented from shooting more because his rifle jammed, prosecutors said.
"He didn't care who he killed or how many he killed, because he wanted to kill all of them," Pearson said Wednesday.
The hearing is a legal formality to establish the prosecution's case. Defense attorneys rarely mount a full-blown case during such hearings, preferring to save their witnesses for the trial. Defense attorney Tamara Brady offered a limited, but notable, preview when she questioned an ATF agent who had listed Holmes' extensive online purchases.
Brady asked whether any Colorado law prevented "a severely mentally ill person" from buying the ammunition, body armor and handcuffs that Holmes purchased online. The answer: No.
Holmes had seen a psychiatrist at the University of Colorado, Denver. There was no testimony about his year at the school during the hearing. He left the neuroscience graduate program after failing a key exam.
If Holmes is found sane, goes to trial and is convicted, his attorneys can try to stave off a possible death penalty by arguing he is mentally ill. Prosecutors have yet to say whether they will seek the death penalty. They will have 90 days from Holmes' arraignment to hold Holmes for trial to decide.
If Holmes is found not guilty by reason of insanity, he would likely be sent to the state mental hospital, not prison. Such a defendant is deemed not guilty because he didn't know right from wrong and is therefore "absolved" of the crime, said former Jefferson County District Attorney Scott Storey. His case would be reviewed every six months until he's deemed sane and released.
Last year, Bruco Strong Eagle Eastwood was acquitted by reason of insanity of attempted first-degree murder in the wounding of two eighth-graders outside a school not far from Columbine High School. Eastwood is spending time in a mental hospital.
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Associated Press writers Thomas Peipert, Nicholas Riccardi and Colleen Slevin contributed to this report.
Prosecutors who displayed the pictures at a hearing that ended Wednesday argued the photos display "identity, deliberation and extreme indifference."
Holmes' attorneys - who have been setting up an insanity defense and said they might present testimony about the defendant's mental health - decided not to call any witnesses.
A judge is due to rule by Friday whether prosecutors presented enough evidence to justify Holmes standing trial for more than 160 felony counts stemming from the July 20 attack, which killed 12 people and injured 70. Holmes, 25, may enter a formal plea that day.
The three-day hearing occurred as the nation still recovers from the shock of last month's shooting at a Connecticut elementary school that killed 20 children and six adults. It wrapped up just as the Colorado Legislature began its session and pledged to tackle gun violence, and Vice President Joe Biden met with families of victims as part of the White House's own gun control push.
Prosecutors presented the most detailed description of the attack and Holmes' alleged months of preparation. But they never addressed the mystery of why Holmes opened fire six weeks after leaving a neuroscience graduate program.
Legal experts say evidence against Holmes is so strong that the case may end in a plea deal. That would make the hearing the only detailed presentation of the evidence that victims, their families and the public will hear.
Holmes sat impassively through much of the proceedings, watching intently as a surveillance video showed him entering the theater lobby. Family members, who had a better view of Holmes' face than the media did in the packed courtroom, said he smiled multiple times, especially when the photos were shown.
"He's not crazy, he's evil," said Tom Teves, whose 24-year-old son Alex was killed in the attack. "He's an animal."
Prosecutor Karen Pearson argued that Holmes meticulously planned the attack, starting with the online purchase of two tear gas canisters on May 10, followed by buying online 6,295 rounds of ammunition, and body armor, as well as going to local sporting goods stores to purchase an assault rifle, shotgun and two Glock pistols. He bought his ticket for opening night of "The Dark Knight Returns" nearly two weeks before the attack and visited the theater early, photographing the layout.
He rigged an elaborate booby-trap system in his apartment with three different triggers, hoping the detonation would distract police from the carnage he planned a few miles away, investigators testified. The trap was never sprung.
About six hours before the attack, Holmes took a series of photos on his phone. In one he wears black contact lenses and a black stocking cap, with two tufts of his dyed-red hair sticking out like a pair of horns. In another he holds a pistol beneath his face, twisted into a grin. In a third, much of his arsenal - the assault rifle and shotgun, magazines for ammunition, tactical gear and bags to carry rounds - is displayed on a red sheet on his bed.
When Holmes burst into the theater and opened fire just after midnight July 20 there were as many as 1,500 people crowded into the seats and in the auditorium next door, prosecutors said. Some of Holmes' bullets pierced the wall and injured people in the adjacent theater. Holmes fired about 70 rounds, many of which apparently hit multiple people, and was only prevented from shooting more because his rifle jammed, prosecutors said.
"He didn't care who he killed or how many he killed, because he wanted to kill all of them," Pearson said Wednesday.
The hearing is a legal formality to establish the prosecution's case. Defense attorneys rarely mount a full-blown case during such hearings, preferring to save their witnesses for the trial. Defense attorney Tamara Brady offered a limited, but notable, preview when she questioned an ATF agent who had listed Holmes' extensive online purchases.
Brady asked whether any Colorado law prevented "a severely mentally ill person" from buying the ammunition, body armor and handcuffs that Holmes purchased online. The answer: No.
Holmes had seen a psychiatrist at the University of Colorado, Denver. There was no testimony about his year at the school during the hearing. He left the neuroscience graduate program after failing a key exam.
If Holmes is found sane, goes to trial and is convicted, his attorneys can try to stave off a possible death penalty by arguing he is mentally ill. Prosecutors have yet to say whether they will seek the death penalty. They will have 90 days from Holmes' arraignment to hold Holmes for trial to decide.
If Holmes is found not guilty by reason of insanity, he would likely be sent to the state mental hospital, not prison. Such a defendant is deemed not guilty because he didn't know right from wrong and is therefore "absolved" of the crime, said former Jefferson County District Attorney Scott Storey. His case would be reviewed every six months until he's deemed sane and released.
Last year, Bruco Strong Eagle Eastwood was acquitted by reason of insanity of attempted first-degree murder in the wounding of two eighth-graders outside a school not far from Columbine High School. Eastwood is spending time in a mental hospital.
___
Associated Press writers Thomas Peipert, Nicholas Riccardi and Colleen Slevin contributed to this report.
Many of us would prefer to believe that someone who does what Holmes did has to be, absolutely MUST be, sick -- that his mind is diseased. We don't like to consider the possibility that he could simply be EVIL, because that would mean that a force such as evil has a real presence in our world -- and that really scares us. I maintain that in this case, the perp IS truly evil. Does he also have a mental illness??? Possibly, but there is no evidence in the above account to compel us to determine that he is ill. There is, on the other hand, abundant reason to conclude that Holmes is proof that evil does, indeed, walk amongst us.
 @felines99 I could careless either way. If killing innocent people in cold blood is a sickness, then death is the perfect treatment. If the devil made him do it, then death is the perfect exorcism.
 @Lips And I do care. It matters to me that not all of the violence in the world is attributed to those with mental illnesses; I believe in the existence of evil, and in the existence of evil people.
How is this news? There is no making sense of a chronically mentally afflicted person.Â
Shameless media pandering - this news article. What is chronicled here is his disease - not the man.Â
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Shameless. Despicable. Low.Â
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Let's just take away all constitutional rights of everyone - that'll how him and his disease, right? Oh, how progressively far gone we are. And cruel. And uncaring - toward the one in four of us all across this great land that, at one point in our lives, will be afflicted with mental disease.Â
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 @englishdaisy Constitutional rights? What constitutional right was written to protect cold blooded killers? Give him his day, than hang him. It will be doing him a favor. I can only hope if I ever catch this disease you've personal diagnosed this freak as having that someone will put me down if I'm to sick to do it myself.
 @englishdaisy What disease??? Clearly, he knew right from wrong, and he knew what he was doing was wrong. He relished in killing people. His mind works fine. It is his soul which is EVIL!!!
Clearly he's screwed in the head..... That's why he did what he did. Save us all the drama and just throw him in front of a firing squad. Done.
 @Jeepers Drama? Or rights. Dram? Or evidence? Drama - or a witch hunt by the low MINDED, close minded, arrogant and bigoted all across this land.Â
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Until the ONE IN FOUR afflicted with a chronic debilitating mental disease is you yourself of someone you know we sure just want to keep with the lies and witch hunt protests and assurances that by KILLING THIS MAN all mental disease and daily mental torment will end - for all?Â
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Really, people?Â
 @englishdaisy  @Jeepers I have a "chronic debilitating mental disease" -- TRD, or treatment-resistant depression. But I also know the difference between right and wrong, and I have NEVER been tempted to even steal a candy bar, because it is WRONG to do so. Some killers are mentally ill. And some are just plain EVIL. After reading the above, it is pretty clear that Holmes falls into the latter category. He had intent, he planned his crime meticulously, and he relished in the pleasure of taking other lives. He is clearly EVIL. REALLY, "people".
At what point do we decide that the clinical diagnosis of a mass murderers brain is irrelevant? Sick in the head, rotten in the heart... Who cares? For crimes this severe it shouldn't matter. I wouldn't even acknowledge the insanity angle, were I the prosecution. Try the case with physical evidence and execute the demon.
 @Lips Thank GOD the judicial system protects the mentally ill from witch hunt bigots like you.Â
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This man has rights. This man is suffering. This man has a DISEASE.Â
And all you want is a bon fire and a spigot to roast him on?Â
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Good Lord....
 @englishdaisy  @Lips You're right, for once. That's all I want to do. It's more important to put him down and let the families move on than caring about his ''sickness''. He's done. He'll either spend his life in confinement or he'll be executed.
This man is NOT suffering. He is not ill. He is EVIL.