colorado theater shooting Trial tries to look into Holmes’ mind

Associated Press

CENTENNIAL, Colo.

Two versions of the unstable mind of James Holmes were presented to a jury Monday as lawyers revealed many more details about his conversion from a promising grad student to a gunman capable of opening fire on hundreds of unsuspecting moviegoers at a “Batman” premiere.

The lead prosecutor displayed an image of the theater door on a TV screen as he told of a sinister but sane killer who methodically carried out the 2012 mass murder to make himself feel good and be remembered.

“Through this door is horror. Through this door are bullets, blood, brains and bodies. Through this door, one guy who thought as if he had lost his career, lost his love life, lost his purpose, came to execute a plan,” said District Attorney George Brauchler, standing before a scale model of the theater.

“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 two previously secret court-ordered psychiatric exams found Holmes to be sane.

Public Defender Daniel King countered that Holmes suffers from schizophrenia, a diagnosis confirmed by 20 doctors.

Jurors must decide whether Holmes was able to know right from wrong when he slipped into the theater, unleashed tear gas and killed 12 people and wounded 70. He’s charged with first-degree murder, attempted murder, an explosives offense and committing an act of violence for the mayhem he caused July 20, 2012.

Holmes has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. His defense hopes jurors will agree and have him indefinitely committed to a mental institution. Under Colorado law, prosecutors must prove Holmes was sane in order to have him executed or spend the rest of his life in prison.

“Mental illness can sure sound like an excuse, but in this case, it’s not,” King said. “There will be no doubt in your minds that by the end of this trial, Mr. Holmes is severely mentally ill.”

Holmes sat quietly, harnessed to the floor by a cable that ran through his pants leg as the lawyers described his emotional rise and fall.