theater shooting Jury ends 1st day of talks with no verdict

Associated Press

CENTENNIAL, Colo.

The jury in the trial of Colorado theater shooter James Holmes adjourned Wednesday without reaching a verdict.

Jurors will return today to keep considering whether Holmes was legally insane when he killed 12 people and injured 70 more during a crowded midnight movie premiere.

The jurors deliberated for more than seven hours Wednesday, asking the judge three questions and requesting a whiteboard. They also asked for an index to the mounds of evidence left for them in the jury room, but the judge declined.

The panel must decide whether prosecutors have met their burden in proving Holmes was capable of knowing right from wrong and therefore legally sane under Colorado law. Holmes’ lawyers say he was in the grips of a psychotic episode during the July 2012 attack.