The mother of Colorado theater gunman James Holmes, police officers who responded to the massacre and the relatives of those killed cried as it became clear that Holmes would be sentenced to life and spared the death penalty because jurors couldn’t agree on a sentence. The sentence will be announced at 7 p.m. Despite hearing from all of Holmes family members and more evidence of mental illness and schizophrenia put forth by the defense in phase two, the jury did not find that mitigating circumstances of the murder outweighed the aggravating factors. “I don’t know if they could have been swayed or not”.
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The jury of nine women and three men deliberated late on Thursday and on Friday morning and early afternoon on the decision on whether to impose the death penalty. She began shaking her head and lay it on the back of the wheelchair of Caleb Medley, another paralyzed victim. But reporters in the courtroom said that a family member of one of the victims left the courtroom.
A court spokesman said the verdict forms had been completed and that Arapahoe County District Court Judge Carlos Samour would take the bench at 5 p.m. local time (1900 ET).
Holmes was not immediately remanded to prison. Seventy people were also wounded.
District Attorney George Brauchler said Friday that he was disappointed when the verdicts were read. “No, I’m sorry”, Sullivan said.
Another suggested that the jury had been “infiltrated” by a death penalty opponent. They say he he listened to loud music through headphones when he shot into the audience to block out the screams of the victims.
Sandy Phillips wore an emerald green pashmina shawl that belonged to her slain daughter. “It’s a tragedy”, the juror said, refusing to give her name. Our loved ones were ripped from us. “However we just have to deal and accept it”.
The sense of shock at the jury’s decision was evident on the face of Robert Sullivan, grandfather of Veronica Moser-Sullivan, a six-year-old girl who was the youngest person killed in the theater. “May justice be done”, said a statement from the Colorado State Patrol. “He’s living, he’s breathing”.
Dave Hoover, the uncle of 18-year-old victim A.J. Boik added:”Our loved ones are gone, we will never get to hug them again”.
Attorneys for Holmes file an objection to the judge’s ruling that their client must be restrained during the trial, by means of hidden harness anchored to the floor.
But Assistant Public Defender Tamar Brady disagreed, arguing before the jurors began their deliberations that “justice without mercy is raw vengeance.”
Holmes’ victims didn’t agree on what sentence was appropriate for the former neuroscience graduate student.
Holmes admitted to his crimes and had pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.
James Holmes, the convicted Aurora, Colo., theater shooter, as he appeared in court on June 4, 2013, in Centennial, Colo.
November 15, 2012 – Holmes is taken to a hospital psychiatric ward and held for several days, sometimes in restraints.
He then walked out a rear door, which he left propped open.
When he returned, he threw a canister of tear gas and started shooting moviegoers with multiple guns.
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Holmes fled. But he was arrested in the parking lot outside the theater on July 20, 2012, about seven minutes after the first 911 calls were made to police.
