2:50 p.m. update
AURORA | Ashley Moser — who was paralyzed and whose 6-year-old daughter was killed in the Aurora theater shooting — testified Friday, the last witness to take the stand before prosecutors rested their case.
Moser, sitting in a wheelchair, detailed how excited she was in the hours before the shooting because she had recently found out she was pregnant. She said her, her boyfriend, her daughter Veronica, a babysitter and the sitter’s friend went to the late night movie to celebrate.
Just before the movie started, Moser said she realized it wasn’t going to be the family friendly film she expected. Her daughter was sitting on her lap but she wasn’t comfortable so she had the girl sit in the seat next to her.
“She was a very tall, bony child, so I had her move to the seat next to me,” she said.
Moser said when the shooting started she reached for Veronica but the girl’s fingers slipped through her hand.
“As soon as I stood up I just remember getting hit in my chest and I remember falling and landing on top of her,” she said.
When she landed, Moser said she couldn’t feel Veronica breathe or move and wanted to get up.
“I tried but I couldn’t move,” she said, fighting back tears.
Moser said someone carried her out of the theater but she didn’t see her daughter leave the theater.
It wasn’t until two days later when she came out of surgery at a local hospital that she found out what happened to Veronica.
“I was told that she didn’t make it, that she had passed away,” she said.
As for her injuries, Moser said one bullet hit her thigh, another wen through her chest and perforated her lung, and another ricocheted off her shoulder blade and into her spine. During one of her surgeries she had a miscarriage.
Moser said she has some mobility in her arms but isn’t expected to walk again. She said she also needs an oxygen tank to breathe and has ongoing nerve pain in her legs.
Moser testified for almost 30 minutes and when she was done, District Attorney George Brauchler rested the prosecution’s case. Court is set to resume Thursday with lawyers for James Holmes presenting their case.
11:25 a.m. update
AURORA | A woman James Holmes went on a date with in 2012 testified Friday that the accused shooter told her that summer he had “dysphoric mania.”
Hillary Allen, who was a fellow graduate student with Holmes at University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, said Holmes texted her and said he had managed his mental issues before but no longer could.
On July 8, just 12 days before the shooting — and after Holmes had already amassed his arsenal and chosen a location for the attack — Allen said she texted Holmes and asked if he was ok.
“Yup,” he replied.
That was the last time Allen said she ever heard from Holmes.
Under questioning from the defense, Allen agreed that Holmes had pulled back and become even more of a loner in during the spring 2012 semester than he had been before.
The defense has argued that Holmes was slipping further and further into insanity during the stretch, but prosecutors have said Holmes was still functioning normally during that time.
9:30 a.m. update
AURORA | The first witness to testify on day 34 of the Aurora theater shooting trial — which could see prosecutors wrap their case — was a young woman shot three times in the theater.
Petra Hogan said she went to the theater that night with two friends who were biking across the country.
She said she had a long day at work the day before and was so tired she fell asleep during the previews. After the movie started, Hogan said she was woken up by gunfire and saw flashes coming from the front of the theater.
“I immediately knew that I was in a shooting and that there was a possibility of being shot,” she said, fighting back tears on the stand.
She said she tried to get down behind the seats but she blacked out and when she came to, she was face down behind the seats in a pool of sticky, thick liquid.
She heard gunshots and screams and felt like her throat was burning. Hogan recalled that her friend climbed on top of her to keep her down behind the seats.
Hogan said she blacked out again and when she came to this time the theater was quiet. Her and her friends crawled to the end of the row and tried to make it to an exit.
“That’s when I saw a body in a seat at the end of the row,” she said.
Hogan said she was having trouble walking but didn’t know why. Eventually she realized she had been shot three times — twice in the arm and once in the face. One shotgun pellet went through her face and stopped at the back of her skull.
Hogan said she had to have part of her skulled removed in one of the several surgeries she underwent.
She still suffers from some cognitive issues after the shooting, she said.
Prosecutors are also expected to call Veronica Moser to the stand Friday. Moser’s testimony is expected to be some of the most-grueling of the trial. She was paralyzed, lost her unborn baby and her 6-year-old daughter was killed in the shooting.
James Holmes is accused of killing 12 and wounding dozens more in the July 2012 attack. He has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity and prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.