AURORA | After watching three days of gut-wrenching testimony in the James Holmes preliminary hearing last week, Caren Teves is certain of one thing about the man accused of killing her son.
“He is definitely not crazy. He is evil, but he is not insane,” said Teves, whose son, Alex, was one of 12 people killed July 20 in the Century Aurora 16 theater.
Police say Holmes killed 12 and shot another 58 during the rampage. Another 12 people were hurt as they fled the packed theater during a midnight showing of “The Dark Knight Rises,” police said.
If convicted of the charges against him, which include 12 counts of first-degree murder, Holmes could face the death penalty.
Holmes’ lawyers have said he is mentally ill and experts expect him to plead not guilty by reason of
insanity.
Teves said she doesn’t believe Holmes was insane.
“There was so much thought and there was so much time and there was so much planning that went into this by the shooter,” she said.
Teves and her husband, Tom, sat through every minute of Holmes’ preliminary hearing last week. They deliberately chose a seat that gave them a clear look at Holmes, who sat next to his lawyer in a red jail jumpsuit, his hands and feet shackled. Holmes could be seen watching intently throughout much of the testimony, glancing from the exhibits to the witnesses as they testified.
He didn’t take notes the way many defendants do, and he rarely, if ever, spoke to his lawyers inside the courtroom.
But Teves said from where she sat, she could see Holmes’ facial expressions and his face lit up at various points during the hearing.
When prosecutors showed pictures from Holmes’ cell phone, Teves said she saw him smile. Several reporters in the courtroom also said they saw Holmes smile.
“What really got him going, and what really gave him pleasure, was the pictures,” she said.
The photos included five from the night of the shooting of a grinning Holmes flaunting his massive arsenal.
In the first photo, taken at 5:17 p.m. July 19, Holmes took a picture of his guns, ballistic gear and gas mask spread out on a red sheet on his bed.
At 6:22 p.m., he took a self portrait of himself wearing black contact lenses, a black beanie and sticking his tongue out. His dyed orange hair stuck out under the cap in curls that resembled devil horns.
Three minutes later, he took a picture of himself grinning and holding a Glock pistol in front of his face.
At 6:31 p.m., he took a picture of himself holding one of the black bombs he set in his house, seemingly whistling as he snapped the photo. The round bomb had an almost cartoonish quality, with a red and white striped fuse sticking out of the top.
In the last picture, snapped at 6:40 p.m., Holmes sat in front of one of the elaborate bomb ignition systems.
“It was nauseating,” Teves said of Holmes’ pre-rampage photo shoot.
Sitting through the three-day hearing was grueling, Teves said. Hearing the details about what happened inside the theater and Holmes’ actions leading up to the shootings made for the toughest week since the shooting, she said.
“We were there for our son, we were there to represent Alex, there to try understand exactly what happened,” she said.
After last week’s preliminary hearing, Judge William Sylvester ruled there is enough evidence for Holmes to stand trial.
Holmes was scheduled for arraignment Jan. 11, but his lawyers said they weren’t prepared to enter a plea yet.
Deputy District Attorney Jacob Edson said prosecutors were ready for arraignment, and that 84 of the 93 victims prosecutors contacted also wanted to move forward.
“We are ready to move this case along,” he said.
But Sylvester sided with the defense and granted the delay, saying rushing the case could lead to problems.
“I’m empathetic with the position of the victims in wanting to move this matter forward,” he said. “However, I must make sure this matter is done correctly.”
Sylvester said moving too quickly could lead to problems during any potential appeal, and those could lead to the case having to be retried.
He rescheduled the preliminary hearing for March.
After the arraignment, prosecutors will have about two months to announce whether they plan to seek the death penalty against Holmes.
Holmes is scheduled to appear in court again Feb. 4. At that hearing, his lawyers said they plan to call a Fox News reporter to testify. The reporter, Jana Winter, ran a story after the shootings that quoted “law enforcement sources” who said a notebook Holmes sent his psychiatrist contained stick-figure drawings of the shooting.
Holmes’ lawyers have been trying for months to prove that someone in law enforcement connected to the case violated the judge’s gag order, which bars them from discussing the case with the press.