CENTENNIAL | James Holmes was in the throes of schizophrenia when he opened fire inside a packed Aurora movie theater July 2012, killing 12, injuring 70 and scarring a city, his lawyers said Monday in their opening statements.
“When James Holmes stepped into that theater in July 2012, he was insane,” Public Defender Daniel King said.
But prosecutors paint a far different picture of Holmes, arguing he was a brilliant and calculating killer enraged at the world after his academic career as a neuroscience student at University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus crumbled.
The revelation in the first few hours of what is expected to be a five-month trial marked the first time anyone involved in the case has said publicly what doctors believe Holmes’ particular mental health issue was at the time of the elaborately-planned attack during a midnight premiere of the Dark Knight Rises.
King said Holmes — who has a family history of serious schizophrenia — was in a psychotic episode and convinced that he would gain “human capital” by killing people.
“It’s nonsense,” King told the 24 jurors. “But to him it was so real, so powerful, that it had to be done.”
King said all 20 different doctors who examined Holmes have said he suffered from some sort of schizophrenic disorder.
District Attorney George Brauchler said during emotional opening statements that Holmes’ mental health issues didn’t rise to the level of insanity and noted that both doctors appointed by the state ruled him sane. The only doctor that found Holmes insane was one hired by the defense, he said.
Brauchler said Holmes wasn’t insane in the weeks and months leading up to the shootings — a period when he amassed an arsenal that included an assault rifle, shotgun, two handguns, thousands of rounds of ammunition and body armor — but was instead angry with the world. Holmes’ failures at the CU medical school as well as a break up with his first and only girlfriend only made him more angry, Brauchler said.
“He tried to murder a theater full of people to make himself feel better, and because he thought it would increase his self worth,” Brauchler said.
The trial is expected to hinge on whether Holmes was insane at the time of the killings. He has admitted to the attack, but his defense insists his mental illness was so severe he didn’t know right from wrong. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.
Since the shooting left Aurora reeling almost three years ago, questions about Holmes’ mental state have lingered. For the most part, a strictly enforced gag order has meant the community where Holmes unleashed horror that night has largely been left in the dark about what lead to the shooting. Monday’s opening statements and the rest of the lengthy trial are expected to answer many of those questions.
The emotional testimony left some jurors in tears. Many of the surviving victims or those who lost loved ones also sobbed, particularly during Brauchler’s opening statements.
Tom Teves, whose son, Alex, was one of 12 killed in the theater, glared at the defendant for much of Brauchler’s argument.
The first witnesses are scheduled to be called to the stand Tuesday morning. The witness list has been suppressed by the judge so it isn’t clear how many or which witnesses will testify Tuesday. During his opening statement Brauchler told the jury they would hear Tuesday from Caleb Medley, a man who attended the movie that night with his pregnant wife and was shot in the head but survived. Medley appeared in court Tuesday in a wheelchair.
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