They were not unanimous, however, on the death penalty, which means he will serve life in jail without the possibility of parole.
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July 20, 2012 Holmes slips through a back door of the Century 16 theater in Aurora, where about 420 people are watching a midnight showing of “The Dark Knight Rises“, and opens fire. After the life sentence was handed down Friday, she called it a tragedy.
After court Friday, a juror who identified herself only by her juror number – 17 – said one juror had solidly opposed death. All but one juror declined to speak with the media. But he failed to kill more, they said, in part because a drum magazine he had bought to boost his firepower jammed.
Some families in the gallery cried quietly or slumped in their chairs; one man stormed out of the courtroom.
As in previous proceedings, Holmes, who is on anti-psychotic medication that dulls his responses, showed no reaction. His attorneys left court without commenting.
The jury from James Holmes’ case, the man responsible for the 2012 mass shooting in the Aurora Theater, in Colorado sentenced him to life in prison without parole.
Outside the courtroom afterwards, District Attorney George Brauchler stepped in front of reporters. The defence had said he suffered from schizophrenia and was not in control of his actions. Family members of the dead who sat through three months of wrenching, sometimes grisly testimony held hands and closed their eyes.
Billy Kromka, an assistant who got to talk to him during his time in the research lab, said Holmes was socially awkward but not the type that would make you think he would carry out such attack.
“He’s still living and breathing”, said Robert Sullivan, grandfather of Holmes’s youngest victim, 6-year-old Veronica Moser-Sullivan. We want him not to be seen or heard from again. It had been his decision to seek the death penalty in the case.
Dustin Bradford/Getty Images Lasamoa Cross, (l.), and Theresa Hoover, (r.), the girlfriend and mother of victim Alexander Boik, leave a Colorado courthouse after jurors said they were deadlocked on whether to execute theater killer James Holmes.
But his parents have been in Colorado since his trial began, anxiously awaiting the outcome and vying for the jury to decide against the death penalty.
Four mental health experts testified that the shooting wouldn’t have happened if Holmes weren’t severely mentally ill. Later, police find booby-trapped bombs and a Batman mask at Holmes’ apartment. The same jury had rejected his insanity defense, finding Holmes capable of understanding right from wrong when he murdered 12 people and tried to kill 70 others in 2012. Prosecutors rejected the offer.
The trial provided a rare look inside the mind of a mass shooter. “They didn’t buy his sanity… and then they bailed at the end”. Holmes told one that he had been secretly obsessed with thoughts of killing since he was 10.
Holmes stood flanked by his lawyers, one of them holding his arm.
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2006 Graduates from Westview High School in San Diego.
