CENTENNIAL, Colo. — Aurora theater shooter James Holmes could be sentenced to death in the coming months after Holmes was found guilty on 165 charges Thursday afternoon in Arapahoe County District Court.
Jurors deliberated for nearly 13 hours.
Holmes was charged with two counts of murder for each of the 12 people he killed and two counts of attempted murder for the 70 he injured. He was also charged with possession of explosive devices for trying to blow up his apartment.
In closing arguments Monday, defense attorney Dan King urged jurors to believe his client had a mind infected by severe mental illness. Prosecutor George Brauchler pressed them to hold the defendant accountable for his horrific acts, because, Brauchler said, he undoubtedly knew right from wrong.
Caleb Medley, above, was an aspiring comedian before he was shot in the head in the theater. He lost an eye, is confined to a wheelchair for life and can hardly speak. His father (top) said he is still a comedian, as Medley stuck his tongue out for the cameras and smiled.
The prosecution convinced the jury of the killer’s sanity, but the trial isn’t over. The same 12 people must decide whether the defendant will spend his life in prison or receive the death penalty for gunning down the patrons at the Aurora Century 16 movie theater on July 20, 2012.
Former prosecuting attorney Bob Grant, whose case against Gary Lee Davis led to Colorado’s most recent execution, said deciding death for the defendant won’t be easy.
“I think its going to be tough,” Grant said. “You balance that against 12 dead and what could have been hundreds dead, the jury’s going to have a difficult time. I don’t think it’s a slam dunk.”
The sentencing phase is expected to take a month. Sandy and Lonnie Phillips, the parents of deceased victim Jessica Ghawi, have been at the trial nearly every day and said they’re not leaving now.
“We’re going to be here until there’s nothing left,” Lonnie Phillips said.
The Phillipses are from Texas but have been living in their motorhome in the Denver area since the trial began in late April. Victims and their families from near and far came to hear the verdict read aloud and filled the courtroom gallery to capacity. Yousef Gharbi, who was shot in the head in the theater, said he was relieved.
“It’s a day to remember. It’s a day to pray. It’s a day to have gratification for your life,” Gharbi said.
Gharbi was associated with counts 36 and 94, attempted murder in the first-degree and attempted murder extreme indifference. All charges associated with victims in Theater 9 — where the gunman attacked moviegoers — had the same verdict of either first-degree murder or attempted murder. The shooter received the lesser charge of second-degree murder for the injuries he inflicted on victims in the adjacent theater.
The killer’s parents sat behind their son as his guilt was announced, but they weren’t seen outside of the courthouse afterward. The Holmeses have been quiet in the last three years about the massacre, but in December 2014 the Denver Post published a letter from them in which they said their son “is not a monster”.
“He is a human being gripped by a severe mental illness,” they wrote. “We believe that the death penalty is morally wrong,especially when the condemned is mentally ill.”
Phillips said he hopes what happened today is a precursor for the death penalty. The sentencing phase is scheduled to begin Wednesday. Tom Teves, whose son Alex was killed in the theater, didn’t comment on sentencing but said he was not surprised by the speedy verdict.
“Facts are facts. Everything that guy did — and that’s the first time I’ve called him anything other than a thing — everything that thing did showed he knew it was wrong, and that was the only question,” Teves said. “The public defenders had an epic fail.”
Editor’s note: CU News Corps will honor the victims of this tragedy with every post via this graphic.
