Throughout the trial he has displayed almost no reaction to the parade of more than 200 victims, law enforcement officials, medical workers and other witnesses who took the stand, just a few feet in front of where he sat tethered to the floor beneath the desk used by his attorneys. After he left for graduate school, their communication was mostly confined to terse emails. Those interviews were recorded two years after Holmes killed 12 people at an Aurora, Colorado, movie theater.
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CENTENNIAL, Colo. (AP) The defense in the Colorado theater shooting trial rested its case Friday after trying to show James Holmes was legally insane when he opened fire at a midnight movie and was suffering from delusions that each person he killed would increase his self-worth.
But the court-appointed psychiatrists told jurors that despite his illness and delusions, Holmes still understood that what he was doing was illegal and violated society’s standards of right and wrong – and therefore he doesn’t meet the legal definition of sanity.
The defence has rested its case in the trial of Colorado cinema massacre suspect James Holmes.
So the defense only needed to raise a reasonable doubt that Holmes was sane.
Holmes’ attorneys had argued their client was in the midst of a psychotic episode at the time of the July 20, 2012, incident. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.
Closing arguments begin next week.
Formal deliberations are expected to begin Wednesday morning.
Holmes’ public defenders presented two weeks of testimony that featured psychiatrists who examined the gunman and found he was legally insane.
Since the defense pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, the jury has heard conflicting testimony from experts on whether the shooter was sane when he carried out his attack plans. If the jury finds Holmes guilty, there could be a lengthy sentencing phase starting later this month.
Prosecutors had been widely expected to call rebuttal witnesses, but they did not.
Suggesting she neglected important indicators of Holmes’ state of mind, he said she failed to take detailed notes, and wrote a much shorter report than the court-appointed psychiatrists.
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His lawyers also noted a family history of disorders, including an aunt with schizophrenia and an institutionalized grandfather. When asked by Judge Carlos A. Samour whether he would Thursday, Holmes replied “I choose not to testify” in a clear, firm voice.
