CENTENNIAL | James Holmes formally pleaded insanity Tuesday, setting the accused mass murderer’s case on what will likely be a lengthy road toward trial.
Holmes entered the plea during a hearing Tuesday morning after Judge Carlos Samour agreed to allow Holmes to change his plea from a standard not guilty plea to not guilty by reason of insanity.
During the hearing, Holmes sat silently with his defense team, speaking up only once when the judge asked if Holmes had any questions. Holmes said “no,” marking just the second time he has spoken during court since July.
His lawyer, public defender Tamara Brady, entered the plea on Holmes’ behalf as Holmes sat quietly, his hands and feet shackled and his face covered by an increasingly-shaggy beard.
The two sides will return to court in early August for an update on a mental-health evaluator’s findings, but it sounded Tuesday like those findings likely wouldn’t be ready by August.
“They anticipate it will be some time before they call for Mr. Holmes,” Brady said.
The evaluator will need at least a month to review the thousands of pages worth of evidence in the case before they are ready to meet with Holmes, Brady said, but exactly how long they will need is unclear.
“I don’t know that we really have an answer as to the exact length of time,” she said.
The prosecution agreed that the evaluator needed some time before they could see Holmes. Deputy District Attorney Rich Orman said the case involves more evidence than “almost any other case they are likely to encounter.”
Experts have long speculated that Holmes, who was arrested after police say he gunned down 12 and wounded more than 50 others during a rampage at an Aurora movie theater, would plead insanity.
But until a few weeks ago, Holmes’ lawyers said they weren’t yet prepared to formally enter that plea.
After several weeks of legal wrangling over the state’s insanity law, and after the defense said Holmes was diagnosed as mentally ill, the lawyers said last month they wanted to change the plea to insanity.
Prosecutors said they plan to seek the death penalty against Holmes.
Since the start of the case, legal observers have said that Holmes’ only hope for avoiding execution is an insanity plea.
The insanity plea likely means the case will move through the court at an even slower pace than it has already.
Holmes is scheduled for trial in February 2014, but that date could be pushed back as Holmes is sent to the Colorado Mental Health Institute at Pueblo for evaluation. According to experts, once Holmes is shipped to the state mental hospital, it will likely be at least two months before the first doctor’s evaluation is sent to the court, but in high-profile cases, it can take longer.
If Holmes opts not to cooperate with state doctors — something his defense have said is possible because of concerns he could incriminate himself — doctors could have a tough time evaluating him. But, experts said, when defendants choose not to cooperate, doctors will rely on other resources to make their decision, including medical records, videotaped interviews with police, interviews with people who knew the defendant and other resources.
Still, there could be even further delays as Holmes’ defense teams argues against the state’s insanity defense laws, which they contend violate Holmes’ constitutional rights against self-incriminating himself.
HOLMES’ NOTEBOOK ADMITTED: Investigators will have access to the notebook James Holmes mailed his psychiatrist, a judge ruled Tuesday.
Judge Carlos Samour said that when Holmes formally pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity Tuesday, he waved any right to privilege that previously barred prosecutors from seeing the notebook.
Holmes’ defense, however, said the notebook was still privileged because his psychiatrist at University of Colorado, Lynne Fenton, never received it.
“I think this is maybe a little more complicated than the people have alleged,” Public Defender Dan King said.
Reach reporter Brandon Johansson at 303-750-7555 or brandon@aurorasentinel.com
PATHETIC!!!! “Insane” my f*****g @$$!!
So, if I make a list, go online and check prices, go to King Soopers, spend $250 on groceries, then go BACK to King Soopers and claim I was “insane” when I planned my shopping and shopped, I will get my money back!?! GREAT COUNTRY!!!!! GREAT COUNTRY!!!!!!!!!
This is awful the poor people of that city have to pay taxes for a person that has done such a terrible injustice to the people of that town. They will always have to think of the night they lost their love ones and now have to live with him getting the best of treatment on their tax dollars. How many times have we seen this happen? He is actually smarter than his attorneys.