Aurora theater shooting trial: doctor for defense says Holmes was insane

AURORA | The first psychiatrist who evaluated James Holmes after the Aurora theater shooting testified Thursday that the accused gunman’s mental illness was “very severe” and he was psychotic.

“It was my impression that he was mentally ill, he was severely mentally ill, and that he had a psychotic illness,” Dr. Jonathan Woodcock testified Thursday.

Woodcock later said he had “no doubt” Holmes was insane and lacked the capacity to know right from wrong when he killed 12 and wounded 70 others at the Century 16 theater in Aurora.

But during the most-combative cross examination of the months-long trial, District Attorney George Brauchler hammered Woodcock on everything from the doctor’s decision not to videotape the interview to whether the interview lasted two hours or two hours and 45 minutes.

Brauchler also noted that while Woodcock found Holmes was delusional, he concluded Holmes wasn’t manic.

“You observed no evidence of mania when you talked to him?,” Brauchler asked. Woodcock agreed.

Under intense questioning, Brauchler said that Woodcock couldn’t say Holmes’ behavior changed much in the months leading to the shooting, despite any mental illness.

“It made no observable or substantive change in his day-to-day life,” Brauchler said.

Early in the cross examination, Brauchler questioned whether Woodcock could — as the doctor said he had — treat the examination of an accused killer the same way he would any examination.

“Actually I take the obligations of my profession and each patient very seriously,” a clearly perturbed Woodcock said.

Brauchler didn’t get to Woodcock’s sanity finding on Thursday before the day’s session ended. The cross examination is scheduled to continue Friday morning.

Two other doctors called by the prosecution said they found Holmes mentally ill, but not criminally insane. Jurors will likely have to grapple with several different diagnoses from various experts.

Woodcock examined Holmes on July 24, 2012, just four days after the shootings and a day after Holmes’ first court appearance. He was the second defense witness called after they started their case Thursday morning and the first of what could be several doctors they call to testify.

During that examination at the Arapahoe County Jail, Woodcock said he was taken aback by how “flat” Holmes seemed and said he concluded that flatness was a result of Holmes suppressing his feelings in a psychotic fashion.

“It was very marked, really very severe,” he said.

About halfway through the exam, Woodcock said Holmes suddenly seemed annoyed. When he asked what was wrong, Holmes said he was “bored,” a response Woodcock said was shocking considering the circumstances.

“It was another manifestation of this tremendous, really psychotic, suppression of his feelings,” he said.

Woodcock stressed that he didn’t think Holmes had a typical mental illness, but a very serious schizoaffective disorder.

“Neither his delusions nor the degree of his illness are mild,” he said.

Holmes had some insight into his illness, Woodcock said, but he opted not to tell his therapist because he thought it would stop him from fixing his mental issues. That sounds illogical, Woodcock said, but is actually a common occurrence for psychotics.

He also said delusions can mean psychotic patients lack the control other people have.

“It may not be within their control at all and at certain times it is not within their control,” he said. “They cannot will it away.”

During cross examination, Brauchler noted that Woodcock waited more than two years after he met with Holmes to review other information in the case and finally make a determination. Woodcock said he took a new job at the University of Colorado in the summer of 2012 and the case wasn’t a focus for some time.

Brauchler also said Woodcock was not a forensic psychiatrist like other experts who have testified, had only been certified an expert one other time in a Colorado criminal trial, and always served as an expert for the defense. The lone other time he was an expert was a case tried by Daniel King, one of Holmes’ lawyers.

King said the public defender called Woodcock that day simply because he was close by and they needed someone to make an initial observation of Holmes at that early phase.

Prosecutors rested their case last week and the defense started their’s Thursday morning. Woodcock was their second witness after a jail nurse.

The defense has said they will need less than two weeks to present their case.

Holmes is accused of killing 12 and wounding 70 others during the rampage at the Century Aurora 16 Theater during a midnight premiere of a Batman movie. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty. Holmes has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.