Aurora theater shooting trial: Doctor thought shooter was psychotic

AURORA | James Holmes’ psychiatrist worried he was in the midst of a psychotic episode — possibly schizophrenic psychosis — at his last meeting with her in June 2012, a month before the Aurora theater shooting.

Dr. Lynne Fenton, a University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus psychiatrist who treated Holmes when he was a graduate student, testified Tuesday that while Holmes talked about killing people, he never mentioned any specific plans or appeared to be taking concrete steps toward hurting anyone. Without those pieces, Fenton said she couldn’t have Holmes placed on a 72-hour mental health hold.

Had she known the truth — that Holmes had already started amassing weapons and planning to attack a movie theater — she said she would have responded differently.

“I likely would have placed him on a mental health hold and contacted the police,” she said.

She later described Holmes as “contemptuous, devaluing, evasive, guarded, hostile, suspicious and uncooperative.”

Fenton told campus police about her concerns and said she believed they looked into whether Holmes had permits for weapons, but didn’t know what police found.

Fenton said she also backed off her initial concern — that Holmes was psychotic — because she talked to his mother and learned his bizarre behavior wasn’t something new, but just the way Holmes always was.

At Holmes’ last meeting with her, she said he seemed angry.

“He had I would say maybe a little bit of an angry edge to his voice at that point,” she said.

Fenton had brought a second doctor into the session to talk to Holmes, and said Holmes told that doctor he believed Fenton feared him.

“Well, Fenton is clearly afraid of me. That’s why she asked you here, to protect her or something,” Fenton said Holmes told her.

During that last visit, which ended when Holmes walked out only 20 minutes to a scheduled 45-minute session, she said she asked him about his exams. He said he failed and but didn’t plan to retake them — an “inappropriately nonchalant” reaction to his situation, Fenton said.

“Most students, if they fail an important exam like this would be upset in some way. And he seemed very relaxed,” she said.

Fenton also said she believed Holmes’ “thinking was rather off” and said Holmes had homicidal thoughts that she wanted to hear more about.

But, Fenton said, Holmes wasn’t very forthcoming with her and seemed to be holding back.

“He, for whatever reason, was speaking very little,” she said.

And even though Holmes was already planning the attack — having purchased tear gas and a gas mask around the time he was seeing Fenton — he gave Fenton the impression that his thoughts about murder were only thoughts and “just denying having any specific target or plan,” she said.

Other times Holmes didn’t make much sense when talking to Fenton. When she asked him for details about his homicidal thoughts, he called them “utilitarian.”

When Fenton said she didn’t understand, he said: “You’d want to eliminate that, you’d have to see it that way.” Fenton didn’t understand that either.

Another time, after Fenton made a mistake on Holmes’ prescription, he sent her an email with a bizarre emoticon she didn’t understand. When he asked him about it, Holmes said the emoticon was supposed to look like a fist punching her in the eye.

When she asked him to explain, he said: “Violence, is that what you need to hear?”

Holmes is accused of killing 12 and wounding 70 more during the July 2012 shooting attack. He has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity and prosecutors are seeking the death penalty. The trial started in April and is expected to continue through August.