Personal and emotional testimony from victims in the shooting are expected to be included.
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The sentencing phase now proceeds to the final phase, when jurors will decide between death and a sentence of life in prison.
Phillips attended much of the trial wearing her daughter’s emerald-green scarf.
The same jury rejected an insanity defense and convicted Holmes of murdering 12 people and trying to kill 70 more in the attack, at a screening of “The Dark Knight Rises” in July 2012. They also argued that Holmes was fully aware of his objectives when he entered the theater and opened fire.
Wounded by the gunfire, Nowlan used the cane he now needs to support his legs as a prop during the trial, to show how Holmes sprayed bullets from his assault rifle. Ian Sullivan, the father of Holmes’ youngest victim, 6-year-old Veronica Moser-Sullivan, closed his eyes when her name was read. According to Fox News, one forensic psychiatrist did report that James Holmes was genetically likely to suffer from mental illness, due to the fact that his father and twin sister had both been hospitalized for it.
Jurors in the Colorado theater shooting trial are being sent home for the day after declining to rule out the death penalty for James Holmes.
Jurors will be back in the courtroom tomorrow morning for phase three of sentencing in the Aurora theater shooting case. They will then deliberate on whether the 27-year-old shooter should be executed by lethal injection. Once those arguments are concluded, the jury will make its final decision on Holmes’ ultimate fate.
The jurors found the prosecution proved Holmes’ crimes were committed in a particularly cruel, depraved or heinous manner.
The killer now has one last chance to avoid a death penalty in the court process, as witnesses come forward to speak to the jury.
Earlier, jurors said that Holmes’ lawyers had not presented a strong enough case to eliminate execution as an option.
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James Holmes, the Colorado movie massacre gunman, could face the death penalty after jurors found on Monday that aggravating factors including the cruel nature of his crimes counted for more than mitigating ones such as mental illness.
