Colorado
movie gunman researched psychosis, military tactics online
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[July 02, 2015]
By Keith Coffman
DENVER (Reuters) - Colorado movie massacre
gunman James Holmes researched hallucinations and mental illness in the
weeks ahead of the rampage that killed 12 people, as well as bomb-making
and terrorism manuals, jurors at his murder trial heard on Wednesday.
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Details of the online searches came from police forensic
investigator Gordon Madonna, who described for jurors what he found
when he scoured the shooter's computers and iPhone following the
July 20, 2012 rampage.
Holmes could face the death penalty if he is convicted on multiple
charges of murder and attempted murder for opening fire inside a
suburban Denver multiplex during a midnight screening of the Batman
film "The Dark Knight Rises," also wounding 70 people.
The 27-year-old former neuroscience graduate student has pleaded not
guilty by reason of insanity.
His public defenders, who called Madonna to testify, said the search
results showed Holmes took to the Internet to try to cure himself of
severe psychosis, delusions, and voices in his head commanding him
to kill.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2015/Jul/02/images/ads/current/best_friends_sda_010515.png) A defense psychiatrist had earlier testified that the California
native chose the field of neuroscience in the hope of fixing what
Holmes called in a journal his "broken mind."
Under cross examination by a prosecutor, Madonna said the defendant
also ran searches on topics including the Century 16 cinema where
the massacre took place, explosives fusing, target shooting, weapons
and military tactics.
Prosecutors say his web history proves Holmes methodically planned
the rampage, and that he aimed to kill all 400 people inside the
theater, failing partly because his semi-automatic rifle jammed.
Under Colorado's insanity defense statute, they have the burden of
proving he was sane at the time of the crime.
Two court-appointed psychiatrists have testified that, while Holmes
is seriously mentally ill, he was sane when he planned and carried
out the attack.
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The defense also called to testify on Wednesday a neuropsychologist
who performed a battery of tests on the defendant as part of a
court-ordered sanity examination.
Rose Marie Manguso said the onetime undergraduate honors student has
an I.Q. of 123, placing him in the "superior intellect" category.
The defense also played video of Holmes in a police interrogation
room after the massacre, as a police officer tapes paper bags onto
his hands to preserve gunshot residue.
One officer asks Holmes if he knows what the bags are for.
"Popcorn," he responds.
"Could be used for popcorn," replies the officer. "But not right
now."
(Reporting by Keith Coffman; Editing by Daniel Wallis and Lisa
Shumaker)
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