CENTENNIAL | After 49 days in court across nearly three months, the Aurora theater shooting trial wrapped Tuesday with both sides making their final arguments.
The question the jury of nine women and three men will start deliberating about on Wednesday: Was James Holmes sane when he opened fire on that packed movie theater three years ago, killing 12 and wounding 70?
Prosecutors say Holmes was, and they point to his methodical planning and the findings of two doctors — both of who were appointed by the state mental hospital, and both of who ruled Holmes sane — as proof that he knew right from wrong.
“That guy was sane beyond a reasonable doubt and he needs to be held accountable for what he did,” District Attorney George Brauchler said during his closing argument.
But public defender Dan King said trying to attach logic to Holmes’ psychotic actions would never lead to useful answers because Holmes’ thinking at the time was so twisted.
“There isn’t a lot of logic to what Mr. Holmes did because he is mentally ill,” King said.
The closing arguments came at the end of one of the trial’s longest days yet. Judge Carlos Samour Jr. was on the bench for nearly 10 hours with just a few 15-minute breaks throughout the day. The two sides worked through their lunch, hammering out closing arguments. Samour didn’t send the jury home until 6:30 p.m.
As he has throughout the lengthy trial, Holmes showed little emotion Tuesday. He sat silently at the defense table, swiveling side to side in his chair and paying close attention to the proceedings.
The courtroom was filled nearly to capacity, and victims and their families rotated at breaks from the courtroom to an overflow viewing room to watch.
Samour warned the crowd about any outbursts at the start of closing arguments, but some of the victims were clearly frustrated by King’s repeated objections during Brauchler’s closing argument. When the defense objected to Samour giving Brauchler an extra two minutes on his allotted two hours because of several bench conferences, someone on the victim side disdainfully said, “Of course you object.”
Before giving the case to the jurors and instructing them to come back at 9 a.m. Wednesday to start deliberations, Samour separated the seven alternates from the 12 deliberating jurors. The alternates — five women and two men — still have to report to court while the others deliberate. Samour advised them that they may be called upon to join the deliberations if anther juror is released. So far, five jurors have already been released since the trial started in late April.
King began his closing speech, opting to use the courtroom’s lectern, by quoting Aldous Huxley: “Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.” King also eschewed Brauchler’s claims that the defense picked and chose the most-convenient facts from expert witnesses to support their insanity case, instead saying that he and his fellow lawyers offered a “whole-cloth” presentation of the evidence.
For the first 15 minutes of the defense’s closing arguments, King took exception to what he called Brauchler’s insistence on explaining Holmes’ action through the realm of logic, and that “the psychotic process” Holmes experienced around the time of the shooting explain many of the examples of “deceitful” behavior Brauchler pointed to as evidence that Holmes knew what he was doing was wrong.
“He had lost touch with reality,” King said of his client, noting that Holmes had been suffering from a mental disease for more than 10 years at the time of the shooting and that he could not control his thoughts, actions and perceptions.
“You cannot divorce the mental illness from this case or Mr. Holmes, because the mental illness caused this to happen,” King said. “Only the mental illness caused this to happen — and nothing else.
“You need to ask yourself, what does the evidence show?” King addressed the jurors. “Where’s the proof that he’s not mentally ill?”
King went on to say that he felt that Brauchler’s closing remarks — in which he rarely made mention that Holmes had any issues with mental illness — amounted to the district attorney “misconstruing the evidence, and it’s not fair to you or Mr. Holmes.”
He also criticized one of the prosecution’s experts, Dr. William Reid, and played a supercut of Reid asking Holmes to speculate dozens of times during his 23-hour interview with him. Another supercut showed Reid saying dozens of times something to the effect of, “these are my words,” or “I don’t want to put words in your mouth,” during the interview. King said those instances show Reid’s interview style was grossly flawed.
In numerous instances, King’s pointed closing remarks referred to Brauchler as “this guy” — the same phrase used repeatedly by Brauchler during his closing argument to refer to Holmes.
But Brauchler said Holmes opened fire on the theater not because he was insane, but because he wanted to be remembered. He noted Holmes told Reid he knew he would be remembered after the shooting.
Brauchler also showed the jury a bulletin board in Holmes’ jail cell adorned with several pictures of women who have reached out to him and mailed him photos since the shooting.
“This is success,” Brauchler said, pointing to the board that also included the No. 1 and infinity sign logo Holmes has written several times. “This is his payoff for murdering people.”
On several occasions Brauchler said Holmes turned the theater into a “kill box” and said the shooter made it a point to shoot people as they fled.
Holmes went into the theater that night with more than 700 rounds of ammunition and three guns. He fired a total of 70 rounds and stopped, Brauchler said, only because his AR-15 assault rifle jammed.
“He kept pulling the trigger and he only stopped when the gun stopped,” Brauchler said.
If jurors convict Holmes, jurors will return for a death penalty sentencing phase that could last through August. If they find Holmes not guilty by reason of insanity he will be committed to the state mental hospital.
— Staff Writer Chris Harrop contributed to this report.
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