He then added another 3,312 years for 70 convictions of attempted murder, and six years for an explosives charge.
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The judge in the Colorado movie massacre trial will condemn the gunman to 12 life sentences and potentially thousands more years in prison on Wednesday, and is expected to address James Holmes directly as the proceedings conclude. Three therapy dogs for injured victims were led from the courthouse as a handler said, “We’re done”. She said that she is “very sorry that this tragedy happened and that everyone has suffered so much”.
That meant the former neuroscience graduate student, who had pleaded insanity, got a dozen automatic life sentences with no parole for his attack on the packed screening at the Century 16 multiplex in the Denver suburb of Aurora. “Death is certain, the only question is when”.
“Now that this is over, I have to go home and live with all that emptiness, and yet somehow be happy with life going on”, she said.
During the final sentencing hearing, which started Monday, witnesses, survivors and family members were given unrestricted permission to speak in open court about the crime and how it affected them.
Colorado theater shooter James Holmes has been formally sentenced.
Samour disputed some victims’ suggestion that Holmes would have an easy life behind bars, noting prison is harsh and restrictive. We can only listen….
“We are unable to visit our loved ones, and unable to hug them, give a kiss, hold their hand”, she said in the statement, which was read by a prosecutor.
Armed sheriff’s deputies kept the audience separated from Holmes as he stood at the lectern, his arms and legs shackled, listening without reaction as Samour pronounced sentence.
Holmes’ sentencing hearing was largely symbolic but gave scores of victims an unprecedented chance to vent their feelings to Judge Carlos A. Samour Jr.
The life term without possibility of parole was automatically triggered after jurors were unable to reach a unanimous decision on a death sentence. She said his mental illness and medications make it hard for him to express it. He stockpiled guns and ammunition and methodically mapped out the Aurora theater complex to determine which auditorium would allow for the most casualties.
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Prosecutors argued the attack was clearly premeditated, with Holmes planning and amassing weapons for months, as well as booby-trapping his apartment to kill anyone who tried to enter.
