Colorado Theater Shooting: James Holmes Found Guilty of Murder

When the hourlong recitation of the verdicts was done, he sat down and lightly swiveled in his chair.

James Holmes was guilty in the murder of 12 people and attempting to murder dozens more.

Holmes showed no reaction as the verdict against him was announced. Wearing a blue, long-sleeved shirt and tan slacks, and tethered to the floor, he stood beside his court-appointed attorneys, looking straight ahead with his hands in his pockets.

James Holmes, 27, was found guilty on multiple counts of murder and attempted murder for the shooting at a midnight premiere of a Batman film near Denver.

He was also found guilty on one count regarding the possession of an explosive or incendiary device for several home-made bombs he set up inside his nearby Aurora apartment.

The emotional responses were varied in the courtroom, but overall relief was the emotion that seemingly settled in the hearts of the massacre’s survivors and families of those killed.

“Justice is served”, read another.

The man who opened fire inside an Aurora, Colorado, movie theater three years ago is about to learn his fate.

A Colorado jury just came to a verdict in the case of James Holmes, who was behind the 2012 Aurora movie theater shooting which left twelve dead. The judge has called the court back into session to read the verdict. A Colorado jury on Thursday convicted Holmes of killing 12 moviegoers and wounding others in suburban Denver.

Holmes pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, meaning that much of the trial focused on his mental capacity during the rampage and on his behavior in the months before and afterward.

Nationwide, a 2006 federal study estimated that 56 percent of all prisoners in state custody suffered from mental illness and 15 percent suffered from some sort of psychotic disorder.

In Colorado, a person is considered legally insane if he is unable to tell right from wrong, or knows what he is doing is wrong but feel compelled to do it anyway due to the mental illness.

Wrapping up the trial on Tuesday, prosecutor George Brauchler ran through a blow-by-blow account of the massacre, which stunned America and reignited the country’s perennial debate about gun control.

If jurors had found Holmes was insane, he would have been committed indefinitely to a state mental hospital.

That could be the next question jurors will be asked after finding Holmes guilty Thursday (Friday PHT) of first-degree murder in the July 2012 shooting.

He added: “That guy was sane beyond a reasonable doubt and he needs to be held accountable for what he did”.

A tear gas canister exploded in the theater, then gunfire erupted from an AR-15 rifle, a 12-gauge shotgun and at least one. Holmes surrendered to police outside the theater.

Marcus Weaver, who saw his friend Rebecca Wingo killed, said he supported calls to execute Holmes. The convictions come just days before the third anniversary of the shooting.

Prosecutors showcased pages from a spiral notebook in which Holmes inscribed murderous fantasies and nonsensical theories about life and death, and where he plotted what kind of attack to carry out, and how and where to do it. “A quick-witted world traveler with a keen sense of humor, he will be remembered for his devotion to his children and for always trying his best to do the right thing, no matter the obstacle”, his family said after his death.

The shooter’s parents, Robert and Arlene Holmes, were regulars in court during their son’s trial.