colorado theater shooting Holmes convicted of murder

Associated Press

CENTENNIAL, Colo.

Colorado theater shooter James Holmes was convicted Thursday in the chilling 2012 attack on defenseless moviegoers at a midnight Batman premiere after jurors swiftly rejected defense arguments that the former graduate student was insane and driven to murder by delusions.

The 27-year-old Holmes, who had been working toward his doctorate in neuroscience, could get the death penalty for the massacre that left 12 people dead and dozens of others wounded.

The initial phase of Holmes’ trial took 11 weeks, but jurors needed only about 12 hours over a day and a half to find him guilty on all 165 counts.

The same panel now must decide whether Holmes should pay with his life. Starting Wednesday, they will hear what is expected to be a month’s worth of testimony over whether Holmes deserves the death penalty.

For almost an hour, Judge Carlos A. Samour Jr. read charge after charge, reciting the name of the victim, the offense and the word “guilty.” Dressed in a blue shirt and khakis and flanked by his public defenders, Holmes stood impassively with his hands in his pockets the whole time.

The rest of the courtroom was bursting with emotion. Even before the verdict was read, jurors passed around a box of tissues and dabbed their eyes. The foreman attended Columbine High School during the 1999 shooting there that left 13 dead.

When Samour read the first finding – that Holmes was guilty of first-degree murder for killing 26-year-old Jonathan Blunk, a father of two who died throwing himself in front of his girlfriend to shield her from the barrage – numerous victims’ families burst into sobs, trying to stifle the noise by pressing tissues to their noses and mouths.

“As soon as you heard the first ‘guilty,’ we knew all the dominoes were about to fall,” said Tom Sullivan, whose son Alex was killed.

When Samour read the name of another murder victim, Jessica Ghawi, her mother, Sandy Phillips, silently mouthed “yes,” and her husband wrapped his arm around her to pull her close.

“We’re very happy this animal, this monster, will never see the light of day,” Phillips said later outside court. “It feels good to have this weight off our backs.”

Holmes’ parents, Arlene and Robert, sat silently holding hands throughout the verdicts. After the final count was read, Arlene buried her face in Robert’s shoulder.

The verdict came almost three years after Holmes, dressed head to toe in body armor, slipped through the emergency exit of the darkened theater in suburban Denver and replaced the Hollywood violence of the movie “The Dark Knight Rises” with real human carnage.