CENTENNIAL | James Holmes was quiet, reserved and socially awkward during his time at the University of Colorado’s Anschutz Medical Campus, two professors testified Wednesday. He was also one of if not the most intelligent students at least some of the instructors had encountered.
But that social immaturity didn’t bother Holmes’ professors, who said introverts are common in the CU neuroscience program. What bothered them was Holmes’ lack of effort.
“He didn’t work very hard,” said assistant professor Achim Klug.
Holmes is accused of killing 12 and wounding dozens more during a July 2012 attack at an Aurora movie theater. Prosecutors, who are seeking the death penalty, say Holmes attacked the theater because his academic career at CU was crumbling. Defense attorneys say it was because he slipped into insanity.
Wednesday marked the seventh day of Holmes’ trial and testimony focused largely on his failed academic career.
There were also a handful of issues with jurors Wednesday, including two who said they knew witnesses who testified.
In one case, a juror said she recognized Maria Carbonell, who testified Tuesday, because Carbonell’s son goes to the school where the juror works. The juror said she wouldn’t approach the case any differently just because she was aquainted with Carbonell and both sides agreed she should stay on the jury.
The more complicated issue arose when prosecutors called Alex Espinoza, who was grazed in the shooting, to testify.
Seconds after Espinoza took the stand, a juror passed a note to the judge, and the judge had Espinoza leave the stand and the rest of the jury leave the court room.
The juror, a man in his 30s who was a survivor of the 1999 Columbine High School shootings, said he recently met Espinoza and was becoming friends with him. The man said he didn’t know Espinoza when he was first called for jury duty in January, but later met him through the juror’s clothing business, where Espinoza is a customer.
The man said he would rule fairly in the case, but admitted hearing Espinoza’s testimony could be more emotional for him than other victims.
Still, the man said, even though he knows Espinoza and Espinoza’s wife, he wouldn’t let that influence him when the jury deliberates.
“I don’t think I would need to justify anything to anyone, including them,” he said.
Neither side asked that the juror be dismissed and Samour told him he could have zero contact with Espinoza or Espinoza’s wife. The judge said the same goes for the juror’s wife.
But much of the most-compelling testimony Wednesday came from the CU professors.
Klug said that when he interviewed Holmes in early 2011 as a candidate for the neuroscience program, Holmes came off as “cocky.” Klug assumed Holmes had already been accepted to a different program and wasn’t interested in CU. Klug said he didn’t have Holmes on the top of his list of applicants despite a glowing resume and letters of recommendation from well-known neuroscientists.
Holmes was eventually accepted into the program and started there in summer 2011.
Klug said that in the classroom, Holmes was one of the smartest students he had ever met. But when it came to Holmes’ lab work — a huge part of the graduate program — Klug said Holmes didn’t put in the effort he should have.
Holmes showed up later than other students, left earlier and took lengthy lunch breaks, he said.
Still, despite Holmes’ lack of effort, Klug said he would have allowed Holmes to make Klug’s lab his primary home for the remainder of graduate school.
Klug said when Holmes asked if he could join the lab permanently — an important step at the end of a graduate student’s first year — the professor told him he could, but he had some concerns. Klug said those concerns centered on Holmes’ effort and he planned to tell Holmes that if he were going to join the lab he’d need to work harder.
But when Klug said he had concerns, Holmes simply gave up and said he would join a different lab.
Professor Mark Dell’Acqua said he had similar concerns about Holmes effort.
“I didn’t think there was a whole lot of intellectual investment,” he said.
Dell’Acqua said Holmes did well when given instructions or when another scientist told him what to do, but he didn’t self motivate very well.
“He didn’t seem too motivated to incorporate his own ideas or initiative,” he said.
Unlike Klug, who was willing to let Holmes join his lab, Dell’Acqua told Holmes his lab wouldn’t be a good fit.
Testimony is scheduled to resume Thursday at about 8:40 a.m.
From the observations and descriptions given so far, it sound like James Holmes had a deeply flawed character to the point of a personality or an affective disorder. But this kind of mental illness is far from insanity in a legal sense.