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 District Attorney George Brauchler said 400 people went to a
midnight premiere of a Batman film in the Denver suburb of Aurora,
happy and hopeful of being entertained by a tale of a black-clad
hero fighting for justice.
"But that's not what happened," Brauchler said. "Instead, a
different figure appeared by the screen dressed all in black, and he
came there with one thing in his heart and in his mind, and that was
mass murder."
His remarks came during closing arguments in the almost
three-month-long capital trial of James Holmes, as jurors prepare to
decide if he was legally insane or a calculating mass murderer when
he staged his attack.
It was the last time attorneys address the jury before the panel
begins deliberating the fate of the 27-year-old California native on
Wednesday.
Holmes, who has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, faces 165
counts of murder, attempted murder and explosive charges stemming
from the July 20, 2012 rampage.
When the shooting stopped, 12 moviegoers lay dead and 70 were either
wounded by gunfire or injured fleeing the theater. Prosecutors will
seek the death penalty for Holmes if he is convicted.
 Pointing at Holmes and calling him "this guy," Brauchler said he
packed "overwhelming firepower," including a semi-automatic rifle
and steel-penetrating rounds, and that he used tear gas to create a
"kill box" in the theater.
At one point, as the prosecutor showed photos of victims on a
courtroom television, his voice broke.
"Forgive me," Brauchler said, removing his glasses and wiping his
eyes. "I thought I could do this without ... Oh man."
There was another emotional moment when the prosecutor showed a
photo of Holmes' youngest victim, 6-year-old Veronica
Moser-Sullivan, while playing audio from a 911 call with gunfire in
the background.
"That guy was sane beyond reasonable doubt. He needs to be held
accountable for what he did," Brauchler said.
'PSYCHOTIC PROCESS'
The prosecution called more than 200 witnesses during the trial,
interspersing testimony from wounded survivors with others who
detailed his purchases of weapons, body armor, and the bomb-making
materials he used to booby-trap his apartment.
They also called two court-appointed psychiatrists who testified
that while severely mentally ill, the onetime neuroscience graduate
student was sane when he plotted and carried out the massacre.
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The defense case centered on two hired psychiatrists who both
concluded Holmes is delusional and schizophrenic, that he heard
voices commanding him to kill to enhance his "self worth," and
cannot be held legally accountable.
"When Mr. Holmes stepped into that theater ... he had lost touch
with reality. He had been consumed by a psychotic process," lead
defense lawyer Daniel King told jurors in his closing argument.
"He was suffering from a mental disease that he'd had for more than
10 years. ... The evidence is clear: that he could not control his
thoughts, that he could not control his actions, and he could not
control his perceptions."
King asked why Holmes told a psychiatrist at the University of
Colorado weeks before the rampage that he had thoughts of killing a
lot of people.
"Mr. Brauchler wants to talk about it as if there's nothing wrong
with him, and he is just logically pursuing things. But where's the
logic?" King said, pointing at the prosecutor.
"It defies logic. That's the psychotic process, and that's what this
guy is asking you to pretend doesn't exist."
Holmes has sat impassively throughout most of his trial. He has
rarely interacted with his lawyers or acknowledged his parents, who
have been in court most of the time.
So many victims and their relatives wanted to attend the closing
arguments, prosecutors had to cycle them in and out of the packed,
windowless courtroom in groups.
(Reporting by Keith Coffman; Editing by Daniel Wallis and Tom Brown)
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