Early on July 20, 2012, Sandy Phillips and her daughter, Jessica Ghawi, swapped texts just before Jessica started watching “The Dark Knight Rises” at an Aurora movie theater.
Phillips, who was at home in Texas, and her daughter were looking forward to seeing each other soon.
Jessica texted Phillips, “I need my mama.”
Phillips told her “I need my baby girl.”
A short time later, Jessica, 24, was dead, one of 12 people gunned down inside the theater in one of the worst mass shootings in the nation’s history.
Phillips was one of several relatives of the victims — including a father, several mothers, a daughter and a wife — who testified over two days this week about their lost loved ones and what their deaths have meant in the following years.
District Attorney George Brauchler told the jury during brief opening arguments in this final phase of James Holmes’ trial that the testimony would offer them some insight into who the people gunned down in that theater were.
“To give you a glimpse as to who those people are in the pictures, the ones he shot to death,” he said. “And you will get just the faintest of whiffs of the impacts on those who are left behind.”
After hearing from the people who lost loved ones in the theater, Brauchler said, prosecutors hope the jury sentences Holmes to death.
Public defender Rebekka Higgs said the appropriate sentence for Holmes, who the defense says is insane and who doctors say has a schizophrenic disorder, is life in prison.
“Is life without the possibility of parole for this young man — who has an illness that he didn’t ask for, an illness he struggled to fix — is life in a prison cell without ever being released a sufficient punishment?” she said. “We say yes.”
The defense opted not to cross examine any of the witnesses during this phase.
Higgs said the defense will ask the jury to spare Holmes’ life.
“We will ask that you not answer death with death,” she said.
District Attorney George Brauchler told the jury during brief opening arguments in this final phase of James Holmes’ trial that the testimony would offer them some insight into who the people gunned down in that theater were.
The first witness to testify was Robert Wingo, whose former wife, Rebecca Wingo, was gunned down in the theater. The couple had two daughters together, daughters who are now 12 and eight.
Robert said Rebecca was always “the central personality to whatever situation she was in” and was always a strong female role model for her daughters.
“That’s not a model they have on a day-to-day basis anymore,” he said.
Tom Sullivan, whose son, Alex, was killed at the theater while celebrating his 27th birthday with friends, said his son was “every father’s dream.”
When he saw news about the shooting, Tom said he called his son and left him a voicemail. He assumed Alex didn’t answer because he was asleep that early morning but he told him he hoped he was safe.
“And then I wished him happy birthday,” he said.
Theresa Hoover, whose son, A.J. Boik, was killed, said her two sons were her entire world.
“I’ve lost half of what I was put on this earth to do,” she said.
Cierra Cowden, who was 17 when she went to the theater that night with her dad, Gordon Cowden, said her father was a patient and dedicated man.
“He was always patient with us even when we weren’t patient with each other,” she said. “It’s selfish to say but I just miss him being my dad.”
After his death, she said she and her siblings are closer in some ways, but further apart in others.
“I just feel like my family is broken,” she said.
Jerri Jackson, whose son Matt McQuinn was killed in the theater, said his death had a ripple effect on her family, leaving her husband, father and other sons forever changed.
Her father used to jokingly refer to himself as “Mr. Wonderful” and even had name tags with the title printed on it at church. After the shooting, when people brought up the playful title, her dad balked at it.
“He’d say, ‘No, we buried Mr. Wonderful in July,’” she said.
District Attorney George Brauchler told the jury during brief opening arguments in this final phase of James Holmes’ trial that the testimony would offer them some insight into who the people gunned down in that theater were.
Kathleen Larimer told the jury that when news broke about the shooting, she and her family were at home in Illinois and scrambled to get details about her son, Jonathan Larimer.
“Nobody could tell us anything,” she said.
Only after another son flew to Colorado did the family finally get word — around 8 p.m. July 20 — that Jonathan was dead.
Caren Teves, whose son, Alex, was killed in the theater, said she and her family were in Hawaii the night of the shooting.
The family’s property there was important to them and they planned to retire there, but later trips brought back too many memories of the horror from that July morning.
“We had to sell the property and abandon that dream of retiring there. I just — I can’t go back,” she said.
The jury could hear closing arguments in the case as soon as Thursday. Prosecutors were set to call their last witness Wednesday, and the defense was expected to not call any of their own.
The same jury that convicted Holmes of murder last month will then decide whether he should be sentenced to death for his crimes.