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 They concede he killed 12 people and wounded 70 when he opened
fire with a semiautomatic rifle, shotgun and pistol inside a movie
theater in 2012, after he had rigged his apartment with bombs. But
they say he suffers schizophrenia and was not in control of his
actions.
Prosecutors accuse Holmes of being a cold-blooded murderer who aimed
to kill all 400 people in the packed midnight premiere of a Batman
film at the Century 16 cinema in Aurora, a Denver suburb. He failed
in part because the drum magazine he bought for his rifle jammed.
After playing jurors a video of the defendant naked and running
head-long into a cell wall, and another of him thrashing around
while splayed in restraints on a hospital bed, the defense rested.
The prosecution said it would not present any rebuttal case. Both
sides will make closing arguments on Tuesday, and then the jury is
expected to begin deliberating on Wednesday.
After Holmes' attorneys wrapped up their case, some victims and
relatives of those killed hugged the prosecutors.
The defense team had called a succession of psychiatrists and
psychologists who studied Holmes, as well as jail staff who met him
after he was arrested at the scene of the shooting dressed
head-to-toe in body armor, a gas mask and a helmet.
Their star expert witness, Raquel Gur, director of the Schizophrenia
Research Center at the University of Pennsylvania, spent a grueling
four days on the stand defending her diagnosis that Holmes was
legally insane.
"He was not capable of differentiating between right and wrong," she
said on Thursday. "He was not capable of understanding that the
people that he was going to kill wanted to live."
Gur, a noted psychiatrist and author who once examined Unabomber Ted
Kaczynski and Arizona mass shooter Jared Loughner, told jurors the
defendant still believes he boosted his "human capital," or
self-worth, by murdering the moviegoers.
A severe defect in his brain meant he was not to blame, she said.
HOLMES DID NOT TAKE STAND
Two court-appointed psychiatrists reached a different conclusion:
while Holmes is severely mentally ill, they have told jurors, he was
legally sane when he planned and carried out the massacre.
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Holmes did not testify in his own defense.
Throughout the trial he has displayed almost no reaction to the
parade of more than 200 victims, law enforcement officials, medical
workers and other witnesses who took the stand, just a few feet in
front of where he sat tethered to the floor beneath the desk used by
his attorneys.
Occasionally, he turned his head to watch videos of himself played
on a court television.
In his longest speech so far in open court, Holmes told Arapahoe
County District Court Judge Carlos Samour on Thursday: "I choose not
to testify," and then responded with one-word answers to confirm
that he understood his decision.
Holmes has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. If the jury
agrees, he would avoid the death penalty and likely spend the rest
of his life committed to the state's mental hospital in Pueblo, 100
miles (160 km) south of Denver.
Under Colorado law, the prosecution must prove he was sane for him
to be found guilty of multiple counts of first-degree murder and
attempted murder. District Attorney George Brauchler attacked Gur's
testimony during lengthy cross-examination.
Suggesting she neglected important indicators of Holmes' state of
mind, he said she failed to take detailed notes, and wrote a much
shorter report than the court-appointed psychiatrists.
"Why not just send in a postcard?" Brauchler asked.
(Reporting by Keith Coffman; Editing by Daniel Wallis and David
Gregorio)
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