|
 After a three-month trial in which hundreds of witnesses testified
and thousands of pieces of evidence were presented, jurors
deliberated for about a day and a half, then found Holmes guilty on
all 165 counts against him. The panel of nine women and three men
rejected the defense's claim that he was legally insane.
Before the jury was called in at around 4:00 p.m. local time (1800
EDT), Arapahoe County District Court Judge Carlos Samour warned the
packed public gallery to refrain from emotional outbursts. In a
hushed courtroom, he began reading the guilty verdicts and did not
finish until more than an hour later.
Families of the victims who were in court smiled as one guilty
verdict after another was read, clasping hands and clapping each
other on the back.
Holmes showed no reaction. Wearing a blue, long-sleeved shirt and
tan slacks, and tethered to the floor, he stood beside his
court-appointed attorneys, looking straight ahead with his hands in
his pockets.
Outside, Jansen Young, whose 26-year-old boyfriend Jonathan Blunk
was killed in the theater, told reporters, "I felt so much relief. I
just felt closure." Young said she was pushing for Holmes to get the
death penalty.
 Monday is the third anniversary of the massacre, and some people
hailed the verdict on social media, many using the Twitter hashtag
#AuroraStrong.
"My community and I can breathe a little more easily now," said one
message.
"Justice is served," read another.
Samour told the jurors to return on Wednesday. The trial now enters
the punishment phase, when they must determine whether Holmes, 27,
should be put to death or serve a mandatory life sentence with no
possibility of parole.
That process is expected to last until late August, with both sides
bringing a fresh round of witnesses.
Prosecutors are likely to call survivors or relatives of those
killed, some of whom had called for Holmes to be executed.
The defense team could call witnesses including more mental health
professionals, and possibly even Holmes' parents, Arlene and Bob,
who have attended court for most of the trial.
The defense had conceded that Holmes was the shooter, but presented
expert witnesses who testified that the former neuroscience student
was not in control of his actions because he suffered from
schizophrenia and heard voices ordering him to kill.
The prosecution called two court-appointed psychiatrists who
concluded that Holmes was legally sane when he plotted and carried
out the rampage at a multiplex in the Denver suburb of Aurora.
"HE DID THIS"
District Attorney George Brauchler said the gunman was unusually
intelligent but socially inept, and harbored a long-standing hatred
of humanity.
He said the defendant could not take it when he did poorly on exams
at the University of Colorado, and broke up with the only girlfriend
with whom he had ever been intimate.
[to top of second column] |
The prosecution argued that Holmes' detailed preparations for the
attack showed that he knew what he was doing, and knew it was wrong.
They presented evidence about his purchases of guns, and showed how
he conducted online research into bomb-making so he could booby-trap
his apartment before he left for the cinema.
Holmes rigged the bombs and turned loud music on the stereo, hoping
someone would open the door and trigger a deadly blast. The devices
were later defused by a police bomb squad.
During the trial dozens of wounded survivors testified about how
they hid behind plastic chairs from the hail of bullets, and
stumbled over the bodies of loved ones as they tried to flee.
Brauchler's voice broke as he showed photographs of the dead during
his closing argument.
"That guy, sitting right there," he said, pointing at Holmes. "He
did this."
Holmes bought a ticket for the screening at Aurora's Century 16
multiplex before slipping out to his car behind the building and
changing into what prosecutors called a "kill suit" of ballistic
helmet, gas mask, and head to toe body armor.
He returned and lobbed a teargas canister into the theater, then
opened fire with a semiautomatic rifle, pump action shotgun and
pistol. He was listening to loud techno music on headphones at the
time, "to block out the screams," the prosecution said.
Holmes declined to testify in his own defense, but jurors did watch
more than 22 hours of a videotaped sanity examination conducted by
one of the two court-appointed psychiatrists.
In the video, Holmes confirmed most of the details of the mass
shooting, including his weapons purchases and his plan to draw
police and other first responders away from the theater by blowing
up his apartment.
The jury also heard emails that Holmes sent to his parents
discussing everyday topics, including the weather and a savings
account, all while he was steadily amassing "overwhelming"
firepower, including steel-penetrating rounds.
Holmes, who graduated with honors from the University of California,
Riverside, had no previous criminal record.
He had been seeing a school psychiatrist and dropped out of a
graduate program at CU's Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora just
weeks before the attack.
(Reporting by Keith Coffman; Additional reporting by Daniel Wallis;
Editing by Dave Gregorio, Toni Reinhold)
[© 2015 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]
Copyright 2015 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. |
