CENTENNIAL, Colo. — As the trial of the Aurora theater shooter nears its end, there are new faces in the courtroom — political groups who have been watching and are possibly positioning themselves for the verdict.
This afternoon, an anti-death penalty advocate sat near the defendant’s parents and talked with them for several minutes before settling in with her notebook to take notes.
On the other side of the courtroom, a local proponent of gun control was also watching. Tom Mauser, whose son Daniel was shot and killed in the Columbine massacre 16 years ago, sat with the victims’ families. After his son was murdered, Mauser headed up Colorado’s Sane Alternatives to the Firearms Epidemic (SAFE), a group that advocates for increased gun regulation.
Partly because of their presence, the intensity in the courtroom is palpable. A conflict over slides detailing schizophrenia added to that tension.
The defense is expected to rest its case by the end of the week. Each witness’ testimony brings James Holmes — the admitted Aurora theater shooter — closer to a jury’s deliberation over his fate.
Ryan Telford, assistant director of pharmacy for King Soopers, testified Monday about the medications prescribed to the defendant between December 2011 and May 2012.
Here is a timeline of prescriptions picked up and paid for by the defendant.
The records are consistent with what Dr. Lynn Fenton said in court last week. Fenton testified she increased the gunman’s doses of Sertraline and Clonazepam, medications used to treat OCD, depression and anxiety.
The defendant complained the drugs weren’t working, so Dr. Fenton increased the dose by their second meeting on March 27, 2012.
On July 20, 2012, the defendant opened fire inside a theater showing the premiere of “The Dark Knight Rises.” He killed 12 and injured 70. Now he stands trial, pleading not guilty by reason of insanity.
According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, Sertraline may need up to six to eight weeks to fully improve depressed mood and lack of interest in activities. Alternatively, Clonazepam usually takes hours or days to work.
The prosecution reminded the jury that simply because the prescriptions were filled, there is no way to know whether or not the defendant took the medication.
The defense and prosecution sparred today for over an hour on the admission of demonstrative slides. The defense submitted more than 30 slides to be used to support Dr. Raquel Gur’s testimony. Gur is a research psychiatrist who specializes in schizophrenia. But those slides did not arrive until late Friday afternoon.
“It’s bewildering to me that this would show up on a day the court was closed,” said attorney George Brauchler. The court was closed for Independence Day weekend. “It’s hand in glove the process we’ve seen these last weeks—this last minute rush to surprise us.”
Defense attorney Daniel King insisted that the slides were merely intended to illustrate Gur’s points and not to be submitted as evidence.
“All of the experts have testified to how this illness works,” King said. “These are not opinions. This is just background information on the illness.”
Karen Steinhauser, an attorney with her own practice, said the defense played by the rules.
“There’s no requirement that demonstrative exhibits be disclosed to either side,” Steinhauser said. “It’s the rules. Part of being a good trial lawyer is being good at thinking on your feet.”
If the prosecution believed the information in the demonstrative exhibit was critical to the outcome of the case, they could have asked for a continuance, Steinhauser said.
“If information is provided late, attorneys can ask for a couple hours to review what they claimed was late,” Steinhauser said. “If they didn’t ask for a continuance, they didn’t feel it was critical to take additional time to prepare.”
The prosecution did not ask for a continuance, despite spending more than an hour objecting to the various pages of the exhibit.
Judge Carlos Samour was concerned over the clarity of the slides and the forewarning the prosecution received.
“I looked at the case law to see if someone had addressed this before,” Samour said. “There’s no rule that I know of to set a timeline for demonstrative slides, though I’m not sure why this wasn’t provided before Friday.”
He allowed most of the slides to remain upon the defense pointing out where each study was cited in Gur’s resume, to which the prosecution had access.
“Judges are very hesitant to exclude evidence that is helpful for the jury to decide facts in the case,” Steinhauser said.
Visual representatives are frequently used to illustrate facts of the case for the jury’s understanding, Steinhauser said.
Some of the jury took notes in an attempt to stay focused.
Alison Owens, a registered nurse at the Colorado Mental Health Institute in Pueblo, interacted with the defendant the two times he visited the hospital.
“I don’t recall him ever making eye contact,” Owens said Monday. His demeanor remained the same between the 2013 and 2014 visits.
The only unusual occurrence came when the defendant watched a movie.
His eyes got large and he stared at the floor, Owens said. He crossed his arms and lay down on the couch.
“He looked like he was upset or angry,” Owens said. The behavior is something they look for.
The prosecution asked if Owens knew what the defendant was angry about.
“It could have been anything,” Owens said.
Dr. Raquel Gur testified Monday for the defense.
Gur, the defense’s star witness, was called to the stand after lunch. She has been involved in other high-profile sanity cases including the evaluation of Unibomber Ted Kaczynski and also that of Jared Loughner, the gunman who shot U.S. Congresswoman Gabby Giffords in 2011.
Gur also testified to a judge about the sanity of James Billiot, who bludgeoned his step-father, mother and step-sister to death. He was not given the death penalty and instead was deemed not mentally competent enough for execution.
She compared mental illness to illnesses such as heart disease, noting early detection and prevention were key.
“All of medicine has shifted to early detection and prevention,” Gur said. “We try to identify risk factors to change the trajectory.”