11:45 a.m. update:
AURORA | Holmes told Reid he believed if he killed someone, “their self worth gets canceled out and given to me.”
He said he thought that way at the time of the shooting and still believed that when Reid interviewed him in July 2014.
Reid pressed Holmes to explain the theory more, but he balked. Reid told him the idea seemed complex and said there could probably be a book written about it.
“It would probably be a boring book then,” Holmes replied.
Holmes said he didn’t get the idea from any outside source like books or movies.
“I just made it up,” he said.
He later said a person’s self worth was similar to a nation’s gross domestic product.
11:30 a.m. update:
AURORA | James Holmes opened fire in an Aurora movie theater because he thought it would end his depression, he told a psychiatrist last year.
“The shootings were supposed to increase my self worth and that would get me out of the depression,” Holmes told Dr. William Reid during a recorded interview that was played during Day 22 of Holmes’ trial Monday in Arapahoe County District Court.
In the video, Holmes tells Reid he thought about committing suicide but shifted his thoughts to killing people in spring 2012. The homicidal thoughts alleviated his depression, Holmes said.
“Doing the homicide got me out of the depression, it gave me a purpose,” he said, adding that he viewed the shootings as a “mission.”
“The mission was to go to the theater and shoot as many people as possible,” he said.
Holmes said he set the booby traps in his apartment to “divert” police from the theater, but he said he was apprehensive as to whether they would go off as intended.
“I gave it a small likelihood that any of it would work,” he said.
During questioning from District Attorney George Brauchler, Reid said that while he believes Holmes was depressed, it wasn’t a severe depression.
Reid, who previously testified that he doesn’t think Holmes was insane at the time of the killings, said Holmes seemed to have a sound mind in the months before the shooting, thoughtfully purchasing specific guns after researching them.
“He didn’t go out and just buy things willy-nilly,” he said.
Prosecutors are expected to continue to show the 22-hour-long interview with Holmes for the next several days of the trial.
Holmes is accused of killing 12 and wounding 70 others during the July 2012 shooting rampage. he has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity and prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.
Way way too much attention on this evil perp (which was his goal to begin with) and not enough on the victim and families of victims. His whole notebook was written for an audience that is why he mailed before his crime. Nail him and do it quickly for the benefit of his victims.
Like He Did It ‘Cause He Was Depressed.
He was researching mental illness during his preparation for the crime, and was already beginning his insanity defense then. That is why he got the book out of his apartment (which was supposed to burn down and would have destroyed the book with it). He wanted to make sure that his insanity plea “golden ticket” would be in safe hands (that would be subpoenaed) so everyone could see just how “insane” he was with his “why? why? why? why? why?…..” He knew his school therapist would be subpoenaed. This guy thinks he is smarter than everybody. Hopefully the jury is smart enough to prove him wrong.
A warped mind is not the same as legally insane. I’m hoping the jury is smarter than Holmes, but I have my doubts.