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 Survivors of the mass shooting told of their terror for the first
time in court as the gunman looked on. Twelve people were killed and
70 were wounded in July 2012 when Holmes opened fire inside the
crowded theater in the Denver suburb of Aurora.
Holmes, a 27-year-old former neuroscience graduate student, has
pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to multiple charges of
murder and attempted murder in the rampage at the theater, which was
showing the Batman movie "The Dark Knight Rises."
His long-awaited trial began in Arapahoe County District Court in
nearby Centennial on Monday. The 19 women and five men of the jury
were asked to decide whether Holmes was insane when he plotted and
carried out the attack, or a calculating mass murderer who deserves
to be put to death.
On Tuesday, the prosecution's first witness, Katie Medley, described
how she was nine months pregnant when she went to see the movie with
her husband, Caleb, an aspiring stand-up comedian.
Her husband, who was shot through the eye, testified briefly from
his wheelchair, just a few feet away from Holmes, who looked on
expressionless.
The brain injury Caleb Medley suffered left him unable to walk or
speak clearly. Instead, he pointed at an alphabet board to spell out
his answers as he confirmed his name.
After the gunfire began, his wife said she quickly realized he was
badly hurt: "I saw blood pouring from his face, and I knew he got
shot in the head," she told the hushed courtroom.
"I told him that I loved him, and that I would take care of our baby
if he didn't make it."
Two days later, she gave birth to their son Hugo in the same
hospital where her husband was undergoing multiple surgeries.
YELLING, SCREAMS
Another survivor, Munirih Gravelly, an employee of Aurora's Buckley
Air Force Base, went to the Century 16 multiplex with a friend who
was killed there.
She said the movie had been playing for about 15 or 20 minutes when
a tear gas canister was thrown into theater nine, and then the
shooting started. She lay on the floor.
"I heard all the gunfire and a lot of yelling, you know, out of
confusion, but then it shortly turned to screams. I heard a lot of
people calling other people's names," she said.
During a pause in the shooting, she tried to crawl to safety but
froze when the shots began again.
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Finally the gunfire and the movie stopped, and the lights came on.
"Then I could see down the aisle I was in, and I wouldn't have been
able to get out anyway because there were bodies in it," Gravelly
said. She had to step over her friend's corpse to leave.
None of the prosecution witnesses were asked any questions by
Holmes' lawyers.
Aurora police Sergeant Michael Hawkins said he was walking to his
car after his shift when he heard the "shots fired" call.
Speeding to the scene, he listened to reports of tear gas and
multiple gunshot victims. In theater nine, he found a man suffering
a terrible wound.
"Most of his head was gone," Hawkins told jurors.
Fighting back tears, he then described carrying the youngest victim,
Veronica Moser-Sullivan, 6, to an ambulance. She had been shot
multiple times and later died.
On Monday, prosecutors said Holmes, who was armed with a handgun,
shotgun and semiautomatic rifle, carried out the massacre because he
had lost his career, his girlfriend and his purpose in life, and had
done it "to make himself feel better."
In their opening statement, Holmes' public defenders said he was
suffering from schizophrenia. He had long heard voices in his head
commanding him to kill, and he was not in control of his actions "or
what he perceived to be reality."
The trial is expected to last four or five months. Prosecutors have
said they will seek the death penalty if Holmes is convicted.
(Reporting by Keith Coffman; Writing by Daniel Wallis; Editing by
Jonathan Oatis and Cynthia Osterman)
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