“How do you feel when you look at it now?”
Advertisement
On Monday, they showed jurors photos of Holmes and his sister smiling during vacations to Hawaii and the California mountains.
The jury is considering whether James Holmes should serve life in prison without parole or be executed for killing 12 people and injuring 70 others in a packed movie theater in 2012.
Chris Holmes’ testimony on behalf of her brother came during the closing days for the defense’s case in his sentencing trial.
Meanwhile, Holmes’ lawyers asked the judge to question a dozen jurors who said they heard about the deadly theater shooting in Lafayette, Louisiana, last week. The afternoon saw the conclusion of part one of the penalty phase of the trial of Holmes, with the judge reading the jury’s decision that Holmes is eligible for the death penalty.
The Colorado theater shooting case has wrapped up for the day after defense attorneys called a string of witnesses to testify about shooter James Holmes’ character and demeanor. Jurors unanimously decided the death penalty can be considered for Holmes and will move on to the next phase of sentencing. The question before them this time: Does the horror of his actions inside the Century Aurora 16 movie theater outweigh the rest of his life? Twelve jurors raised their hands.
Earlier Monday, a court-appointed psychiatrist who found Holmes was legally sane during the attack testified that his severe mental illness led him to open fire on the theater. Metzner took the stand for the defense on Monday to opine that mental illness is the deciding factor in the sentencing decision.
But Metzner also said the attack would not have happened if not for Holmes’ mental illness.
Holmes’ attorneys are hoping to convince jurors that he should not be executed in light of his mental illness.
“Having psychosis doesn’t take away your capacity to make choices”. And, absent that, all of Holmes’ behavior – the way he planned the attack out over months and used tear gas to contain the crowd and fired steel-core bullets to blast through seats – can be seen as cruelly calculating. “Correct?” prosecutor George Brauchler asked.
Ritchie Duong, who went to middle school, high school and college with Holmes, described him as a studious and goofy person who never got into trouble or tried to draw attention to himself.
As for the killer he’s read about in the media, Lacroix said he didn’t know. Chris Holmes grabbed her favorite photo in the minutes after she learned about the shooting, as investigators were searching her family’s home.
When the younger sister of Colorado theatre shooter James Holmes visited him in jail almost two years after the attack, his eyes bulged from his head and he spoke in short, stilted phrases – a vast difference from the loving brother who protected her while they were growing up, she testified Monday. “My brother and I are both very lucky”.
Before the trial began, Holmes’ parents begged for a plea deal that would spare his life. Big Bear Lake, Chris and her brother in bumper boats. They were flossing, with wide grins to show off for the camera.
Advertisement
She said she has desperately held onto a photo of him and her together, “I took it because I wasn’t sure if the FBI was going to take everything from my house, so I wanted it”.
