It was just a thought.
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CENTENNIAL, Colo. (AP) A nationally known schizophrenia expert took the stand in James Holmes’ defense Monday and is expected to testify that he was legally insane when he killed 12 people at a crowded Colorado movie premiere.
In two days of questioning by defense lawyer Daniel King, Gur said Holmes’ thoughts about killing other people had become an uncontrollable storm in his mind in the months before the attack.
Gur said there was a “bizarre quality” to Holmes’ delusional thought and his thinking was not organized.
She said that during her evaluations, the theater gunman had mostly presented a disconnected emotional “flatness”.
Holmes has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity and prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.
Gur evaluated Holmes in the months after the shooting. His coping mechanisms – playing video games and focusing on academics – disintegrated after he started a neuroscience graduate program at the University of Colorado.
Trying to build a rapport with the defendant during their first encounter was like “pulling teeth”, Gur added, and she sensed he was afraid of her. “He told me he was”, she said.
She scolded people in the gallery for laughing when she used the example of an attorney to demonstrate the difficulties that come with recognizing psychotic symptoms.
Gur interviewed Holmes for 28 hours and studied his notebook containing plans for the massacre.
Dr. Raquel Gur, however, did not take detailed notes about her interactions with James Holmes and documented them in a sparse, 15-page report.
But for the first time, the jury on Tuesday heard a description of Holmes none of the other doctors said they witnessed.
Brauchler said Gur had made similar statements in an article she published with her husband in 1991, but Gur insisted Brauchler was distorting her words. She said he became driven by the delusion that he had to kill.
“What were you afraid of?”
Gur said Holmes’ brain was structurally different in important ways when viewed in a 2012 cat scan.
She never saw him react that way again. Gur replied, disagreeing with his assertion.
Gur said schizophrenia is often misdiagnosed as depression because patients sometimes don’t share details about their psychosis.
As Gur described Holmes’ answers, Sandy Phillips, whose daughter, Jessica Ghawi, died in the attack, wiped away tears.
Arapahoe County District Attorney George Brauchler took aim at the timing of Gur’s interview with Holmes’ parents in his cross examination.
Gur said she generally believes that, but doesn’t believe it applies to her. “It was something he did not consider – the reaction of people and family members”.
The greater context of the paper, Gur went on to state, outlined that there is not sufficient evidence to prove if expert witnesses are biased toward the attorneys who call for their testimony. What appeared to be overzealous answers to King’s questions quickly turned into forceful interjections during Brauchler’s characterizations.
Brauchler’s cross examination of Gur was scheduled to continue Wednesday. “All the characteristics of schizophrenia were present at the time of the commission of the crime”, she told jurors.
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Even after an hour-long “lightning round” during which Brauchler listed items Gur did not include in her notes and report, she forcefully upheld her findings.
