CENTENNIAL | Jurors in the Aurora theater shooting trial for the first time Tuesday heard details about autopsies of some of the 12 people killed during the July 2012 rampage.
Aurora police crime scene investigator Faye Bourquez and criminalist Patricia Hopkins testified about the autopsies done on July 20 and 21, 2012.
In the cases of victims Gordon Cowden, Alex Sullivan and John Larimer, the investigators testified that they found no bullet fragments or shotgun pellets, though they saw evidence of gunshot wounds. In the other victims, they testified about pulling several bullets, bullet fragments and shotgun pellets from the bodies.
After the testimony, prosecutors handed the various pellets, bullets and fragments in sealed evidence bags to the jury. Bourquez and another Aurora police CSI also detailed searching defendant James Holmes’ car after the shooting and said they found several rounds of live ammunition for his AR-15 rifle, as well as the shotgun used in the shooting.
Jurors also heard more from several survivors who were in the theater that night.
Husband and wife Marcus Kizzar and Daybra Thomas-Kizzar went to the movie together that night. Shortly after the shooting started, Marcus told his wife to hit the ground, and the pair hid behind movie seats as bullets riddled the chairs around them.
“I could just hear screams and moans and gunshots,” Thomas-Kizzar said.
Marcus Kizzar said he was familiar with the assault rifle prosecutors say Holmes used that night from his time in the Army. He said he could tell the gunman wasn’t experienced with the weapon and he expected the gun would eventually malfunction.
“I was waiting for the weapon to jam,” he said.
Prosecutors have said Holmes’ 100-round drum magazine malfunctioned that night after he fired 65 shots. He had several 30-round magazines but didn’t fire any additional shots from the rifle after it jammed.
During testimony last week, an agent from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives testified that Holmes had overloaded the 30-round magazines, something federal agents are trained not to do because it makes the weapon prone to jamming.
Marcus Kizzar said he eventually fled the theater when the shooting stopped.
“I was just thinking I needed to get out of the kill zone,” he said.
Hailee Hensley was 13 when she went to the theater that night with 6-year-old Ashley Moser-Sullivan and Veronica Moser, Ashley’s mom.
Moser-Sullivan was killed in the attack — the youngest of the 12 victims — and Moser-Sullivan was paralyzed.
Hensley said she didn’t think she was hurt in the shooting, but when she got home and tried to wash blood from her shin, she realized she had been hit by shrapnel. She also had a gash on her thigh.
Holmes is accused of killing 12 and wounding 70 others during the July 2012 attack. He has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity and prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.
The trial started April 27 and is expected to last until August or September.
Court resumes Wednesday around 8:40 a.m.
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Hailee Hensley was 13 when she went to the theater that night with 6-year-old Ashley Moser-Sullivan and Veronica Moser, Ashley’s mom.
Moser-Sullivan was killed in the attack — the youngest of the 12 victims — and Moser-Sullivan was paralyzed.”
You have some wrong info- Ashley is the mother, Veronica is the daughter. Veronica was killed. Ashley Moser was paralyzed.