2:55 p.m. update
Lawyers for accused thetaer shooter James Holmes asked that a juror be excused after the juror said she knew Kelly Eliassen, an investigator for the district attorney’s office.
The juror said she has known Eliassen for several years and sees him about once a year at a Christmas party. She said she didn’t recognize Eliassen’s name on a list of potential witnesses shown to jurors during jury selection, but recognized him when he took the stand Monday.
Public Defender Daniel King said the juror should be released because she knows Eliassen, who has interviewed several witnesses in the case for the prosecution.
Eliassen was going to testify briefly Monday about records from an Aurora motorcycle store where Holmes bought boots in June 2012. Prosecutors opted not to have Eliassen to testify after the defense objections and the juror remained on the jury.
But, Samour said, prosecutors need to tell the court in advance if they want to call him to the stand again. King said the defense could raise the issue about the juror’s relationship with Eliassen again.
1 p.m. update
Jurors also heard from two friends who were wounded in the shooting.
Louis Duran and Ryan Lumba went to the movie that night with a few other friends. The two men said they met up for the movie after working late shifts, Duran at a restaurant near Southlands Mall and Lumba at a popcorn store in Town Center at Aurora.
Duran said he thought someone was playing a prank when the shooting started and didn’t realize what was happening until something hit him in the head like a “haymaker” and knocked him down.
Duran said he thought he was going to die and he called his mom on his cell phone.
Once the shooting stopped, Duran said he was able to make it outside and was later rushed to a hospital. Doctors found 27 or 28 pieces of shrapnel in Duran’s head, fingers, face, wrist, arm and knee, he said.
Lumba said he was dazed after being shot and when he came to he remembers holding onto his stomach. That’s all he remembers until waking up in a hospital and being told several days had passed since the shooting.
Doctors told him he had been struck by several shotgun pellets and a bullet punctured his lung. He said he still has some pellets lodged in his body.
10:30 a.m.
CENTENNIAL | Jurors in the Aurora theater shooting trial told the court that they were unaffected by extensive media coverage of the Boston Marathon bombing verdict last Friday, and they handled pieces of the bullet-ridden local theater extensively.
Judge Carlos Samour Jr. asked the jury as a group whether the Boston verdict would affect their ability to fairly render a verdict in the Aurora case. No juror said that it would be an issue, and one juror said she was unaware of the coverage.
The fourth week of the trial began with more testimony from Aurora Police CSI agent Maria Pettolina, explaining details of what parts of the theater were damaged by gun fire. She said that one bullet went through the wall of Theater 9, where the shooting occurred, traveled all the way across the adjacent theater, which had people in it at the time, and lodged into the opposite wall.
Prosecutors passed several pieces of evidence — including bullet fragments and damaged railings from inside the theater — to each juror. The jury appeared to seriously consider parts they slowly handled and passed of theater seats, railings and other items damaged by gunfire.
Holmes has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to killing 12 and injuring 70 people.