Theater Gunman’s Sister: ‘I Didn’t Know About Mental Illness’

On the screen above is projected one of several family photos shown during her testimony, this one showing the two siblings smiling and flossing their teeth when they were children. Bonnono described Holmes as “just a great little boy”. “If he was frustrated, he would just cool off and leave”.

Recalled by the defense on Monday, Metzner said that nonetheless he believes the gunman’s actions were caused by a form of psychosis, and not, as the prosecution asserts, because he lost his girlfriend, did badly in exams and had a “longstanding hatred of mankind”.

“I think he loved me very much”, Chris Holmes told the court, as her brother sat impassively a few feet away.

“His entire demeanor appeared totally different”, she stated, preventing tears as she described the May 2014 jail go to.

Chris Holmes described a normal childhood in California, packed with vacations, but said her brother had a hard time finding friends and adjusting when the family moved to San Diego.

When Chris Holmes was asked if she ever thought her brother, James Holmes, was mentally ill while they were growing up, she replied, “No, but I didn’t know about mental illness”.

Holmes’ attorneys say he committed the crime because of a severe psychotic break. Christmas morning, Holmes and his parents wearing Santa hats. Metzner took the stand for the defense on Monday to opine that mental illness is the deciding factor in the sentencing decision.

Holmes’ lawyers called Dr. Jeffrey Metzner to testify Monday as part of an effort to spare Holmes from the death penalty.

Holmes knew what he was doing was illegal and that others would think it was wrong, Metzner reiterated in response to questions from District Attorney George Brauchler.

Holmes’ attorneys are hoping to convince jurors that he should not be executed in light of his mental illness.

Metzner said that if not for Holmes’ mental illness – which he diagnosed as a schizo-affective disorder – the shootings wouldn’t have happened.

The judge in the Colorado theater shooting trial has determined that jurors who heard about last week’s deadly shooting at a movie theater in Louisiana could still be impartial.

Another juror said she got a text from a friend about “another theater shooting”.

One woman acknowledged that she “wasn’t thinking” when she skimmed an article about the Lafayette shooting. “He was always looking out for my Mom”, she said.

Judge Carlos A. Samour Jr. rejected a defense motion to remove her, partly because she didn’t remember if she read about it before jurors were ordered Friday to avoid media coverage of events similar to the Colorado attack.

The jury reached a verdict in the first phase of sentencing on Thursday.

On Monday afternoon the defense for Colorado theater shooter James Holmes called his sister Chris Holmes to testify.

Jurors in the Colorado cinema trial have been questioned about their knowledge of last week’s Louisiana movie theatre shooting.

By the end of the week, jurors could again be deliberating about a possible execution for Holmes – the second of three separate deliberations that are required to impose a death sentence. Jurors have found her brother guilty of killing 12 people and wounding 70 during a midnight screening of a Batman film at a Denver area multiplex in July 2012.