CENTENNIAL | Jurors in the Aurora theater shooting trial heard testimony Thursday morning from a neuropsychologist who evaluated James Holmes multiple times using a battery of psychological and IQ tests.
Dr. Robert Hanlon said that Holmes displayed “superior intelligence” by achieving a score of 123 on an IQ test during an evaluation he performed on the accused gunman in April 2013. That score ranks in the 94th percentile of intelligence, meaning that Holmes would score better than 94 out of 100 males his age. Holmes was 25 at the time of the 2013 evaluation.
An IQ score less than 69 constitutes an intellectual impairment, and while “genius” is not a clinical term, the highest IQs range from 140 to 160, Hanlon said.
Hanlon interviewed and evaluated Holmes for more than 13 hours over the course of three days in April of 2013, and again over the course of two days for a shorter span of time in January of this year. Hanlon was never asked by the defense to assess Holmes’ mental health or whether the accused gunman was sane. Instead, he was asked to provide an analysis of Holmes’ cognitive and intellectual functions.
Holmes’ IQ score declined by seven points in the nearly two years between Hanlon’s pair of evaluations. Hanlon called the drop an “unusual and abnormal change” for someone Holmes’ age. He said that Holmes’ scores related to nonverbal intelligence dropped the most.
Hanlon said that his decision to perform a second evaluation of Holmes this year at least partially stemmed from the difference in opinion he had with Dr. Rose Manguso, another psychologist who evaluated Holmes at the Colorado Health Institute in Pueblo who testified in the trial yesterday. Manguso determined that Holmes showed evidence of mild neuropsychological deficits.
“(That was) very different from my initial assessment when he didn’t show any evidence of neuropsychological deficits,” Hanlon said. “That was one of the reasons a second evaluation was considered.”
Holmes has been taking several anti-psychotic and anti-depressant drugs while in jail, but Hanlon said that those wouldn’t have had any effect on the dip in his intelligence scores.
Even given the decrease in Holmes’ IQ scores, Hanlon said that Holmes was “clearly capable” of shooting people in a theater in 2012.
When asked by defense attorney Dan King earlier in the morning, Hanlon testified that a mass shooting with no apparent motive is exceptionally unique.
“From my review of criminalogic (sic) literature and crime analyses of mass murder, it’s extremely rare,” Hanlon said.
District Attorney George Brauchler pressed Dr. Robert Hanlon during cross-examination Thursday afternoon regarding the extent of the testing and profiling he did on Aurora theater shooting suspect James Holmes.
Hanlon’s experience as a neurophysicist had been a key factor of his testimony, as Brauchler pointed that the doctor’s determinations regarding Holmes’ mental capacity were more about his cognitive functions and not specifically whether Holmes was sane in the months after the shooting.
Brauchler’s cross-examination of Hanlon also focused heavily on the fact that Hanlon did not examine various materials — including emails written by Holmes — that were reviewed by other expert witnesses before completing his evaluation of Holmes. Hanlon did, however, review a notebook written by Holmes and mailed shortly before the shooting.
Holmes’ public defender Dan King followed up Brauchler’s line of questioning during redirection by focusing in on Holmes’ lower score on a later IQ test administered, with Hanlon noting that spending time incarcerated or feeling depressed would not account for the change in the IQ score — evidence that the defense sought to use to point to evidence of Holmes experiencing malingering as part of a psychotic breakdown.
Juror questions further sought clarification on the possible causes for the change in Holmes’ IQ scores, including whether the shift from playing video games regularly before the shooting to no gaming afterward could somehow account for the change.
Thursday’s court proceedings ended with talk of the defense eyeing July 9 as the final day of presenting their case, which would tentatively have closing statements beginning Monday, July 13. The court is in recess until Monday morning, July 6.
Holmes is accused of killing 12 people and wounding 70 others on July 20, 2012, in the Aurora Century 16 theater. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty; Holmes pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.