Colorado movie massacre survivor details Holmes' actions

Send a link to a friend  Share

[April 30, 2015]  By Keith Coffman
 
 CENTENNIAL, Colo. (Reuters) - A survivor of Colorado's movie theater massacre told jurors on Wednesday how he lay wounded as he watched gunman James Holmes move slowly about the body-strewn cinema holding a semiautomatic rifle in front of him.

Holmes, a 27-year-old former neuroscience graduate student, could face the death penalty if convicted of opening fire inside a packed midnight premiere of a Batman film in July 2012, killing a dozen people and wounding 70 others.

He has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to multiple counts of murder and attempted murder, and his long awaited trial began this week in a courtroom on the outskirts of Denver.

On Wednesday, the prosecution called witness Joshua Nowlan, a former U.S. Navy sailor who worked on aircraft carriers.

He went to the movie, "The Dark Knight Rises," at the Century 16 multiplex in the Denver suburb of Aurora with friends who had just returned from their honeymoon in Florida.

About 15 or 20 minutes into the film, a tear gas canister was thrown into the theater, and then the shooting started.

Nowlan, who shielded his friends from the bullets, was shot twice and has undergone multiple surgeries. He used the cane he now needs to walk to show jurors what he saw next.

 

 

"I assumed it had to be the shooter, from his stance ... He was walking around, and I can see him pointing the gun in a circular motion that looked like he was searching for more people ... I was terribly scared," Nowlan told the court.

"My thought process was that he was searching for other people and that he was going to start going row by row, and that anybody he would see in that row who was still moving, he would shoot."

DISTURBING ACCOUNTS

He described the gunman firing booming, three-round bursts for what "felt like hours."

Asked if the gunman moved fast or methodically, Nowlan said: "He was definitely moving slowly."

The hushed courtroom was shown horrific photos of the wounds sustained by Nowlan, who described his companions trying to push muscle and tissue back into a hole in his leg.

"It felt as if someone was taking a rusted railroad nail and jamming it into my leg," he said. "I almost believed that my arm was completely blown of."

[to top of second column]

Defense lawyers objected to the repeated gruesome testimony from wounded victims, saying that, since the defense does not contest Holmes fired guns in the theater that night, the focus on disturbing accounts could threaten his right to a fair trial.

Arapahoe County District Court Judge Carlos Samour rejected that argument and agreed with the prosecution, which responded to the public defenders' motion with scorn.

"I don't know what it means that they're not disputing anything. If they don't want to dispute, they can plead guilty!" said prosecutor Rich Orman.

"Otherwise, everything's in dispute ... We have to prove our case the way we think is appropriate, not the way (they) think."

Prosecutors say Holmes, who was armed with a handgun, shotgun and semiautomatic rifle, carried out the massacre because he had lost his career, girlfriend and purpose in life, and did it "to make himself feel better."

Holmes' public defenders say he was suffering from schizophrenia; that he heard voices in his head telling him to kill; and that 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.

(Reporting by Keith Coffman; Writing by Daniel Wallis; Editing by Andre Grenon)

[© 2015 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved.]

Copyright 2015 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Back to top