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 "It is the court's intention that the defendant never set foot in
free society again ... If there was ever a case that warranted the
maximum sentences, this is the case," Arapahoe County District Court
Judge Carlos Samour said.
"The defendant does not deserve any sympathy."
Survivors and relatives of those killed clapped and cheered as
Samour then ordered deputies to remove Holmes from his courtroom,
and the gunman was led away in shackles.
The 27-year-old was found guilty last month of murdering 12 people
and wounding 70 after donning a helmet, gas mask and body armor,
then opening fire with a semiautomatic rifle, shotgun and pistol.
The jury did not reach a unanimous decision on whether Holmes should
be executed. That meant the former neuroscience graduate student,
who had pleaded insanity, got a dozen automatic life sentences with
no parole for his attack on the packed screening at the Century 16
multiplex in the Denver suburb of Aurora.
Samour still had to sentence Holmes on scores of attempted murder
counts, and an explosives charge he received for rigging his
apartment with homemade bombs.
Condemning the shooter to the longest term he could issue, the judge
said Holmes set out to kill "as many innocents as possible" after
deciding to "quit" in life.
He said whatever illness Holmes may have suffered, there was
overwhelming evidence that a significant part of his conduct had
been driven by "moral obliquity, mental depravity, ... anger,
hatred, revenge, or similar evil conditions."
After a trial that began in late April, the judge said the "$64
million question" that lingered was whether the defendant was
afflicted by a mental condition, disease or defect, and if so, to
what extent.
"We tend to like simple answers, but maybe it's not so simple,"
Samour said. "And maybe that's because we're not where we need to be
in the fields of psychiatry and psychology."
"HE IS REMORSELESS"
After two days of often tearful and sometimes angry testimony from
victims, District Attorney George Brauchler had called on Tuesday
for Holmes to be given every day of the harshest possible prison
term.
The lead prosecutor also said he wished the court could order that
the defendant spend the rest of his days in solitary confinement,
surrounded by photos of the people he killed, but that it could not.
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After the judge delivered the sentence, Brauchler told reporters the
gunman had never said he was sorry.
"He has never expressed remorse ... he is remorseless," Brauchler
said outside court.
Earlier, Samour had noted that some people bemoaned that the gunman
would luxuriate in prison. But he said he agreed with one of the
victims who warned it would be "no picnic."
The judge said people could focus on the free food and medical care
Holmes will receive. Or, he said, they could see the glass as
half-full and consider he will be locked up for the rest of his days
with serious, dangerous criminals.
"That doesn't sound like a four-star hotel to me," Samour said.
It is unclear where Holmes will serve his sentence. He could be
transferred out of state.
Defense lawyers say they have no plans to appeal, and the judge said
that meant they had "truly completed" the trial in a surprisingly
short period of just over three years.
"That's unheard of time for a death penalty case, especially one of
this magnitude," Samour said.
"Had a death sentence been imposed, I can promise you this case
would have been pending before this court and in the appellate
courts for years, if not decades."
And the judge praised the victims, who he said had shown tremendous
courage and grit even though some of whom were disappointed that
Holmes would not be executed.
"You know your healing is not tied to the defendant's fate," Samour
said.
"Even despite all the pain and suffering you've been through, you're
not quitting, and you're hanging in there, and you're fighting. You
have my admiration."
(Reporting by Keith Coffman; Additional reporting and writing by
Daniel Wallis; Editing by Toni Reinhold and David Gregorio)
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