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In Colorado, the entire jury must agree to a death sentence, but they couldn’t come to a unanimous decision. The same jury rejected Holmes’ insanity defense, finding him capable of understanding right from wrong when he carried out the attack.

He was convicted last month of 24 counts of first-degree murder – two for each of the slain victims. Holmes is accused of killing 12 people and injuring 70 others on July 20, 2012.

Jurors weighing James E. Holmes’ fate moved one step closer to sentencing him to death Monday when they decided that the gunman in the Aurora, Colo., mass shooting did not deserve leniency for killing 12 movie-goers and injuring 70 others.

The jury’s quick deliberation and verdict meant they rejected the defense’s argument that the mitigation evidence outweighed the four aggravating factors proven during the first phase of sentencing.

James Holmes is still facing a possible death sentence for the movie theater shooting rampage in Colorado three years ago that killed 12 people.

Had the jury not decided to move to phase three of the sentencing, Holmes would have automatically been sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole.

They offered details of Holmes’ pleasant and seemingly average life to counter the prosecutors’ depiction of him as a monster who wanted to kill as many as he could in the audience of more than 400 people, and stopped at 12 only because his assault rifle jammed.

They didn’t know he was getting therapy and thought perhaps he was depressed or had Asperger’s syndrome, Robert Holmes said.

Holmes confessed to walking into the Century 16 movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, on July 20, 2012, wearing protective gear and armed with an assault weapon, other guns and gas canisters.

It took less than three hours of deliberations for them to reach their decision, capping the second phase of his sentencing trial.

James Holmes, the Colorado movie massacre gunman, could face the death penalty after jurors found on Monday that aggravating factors including the cruel nature of his crimes counted for more than mitigating ones such as mental illness.

Holmes’ trial started April 27, three years after the July 2012 shooting during a midnight showing of The Dark Knight Rises at the Century Aurora 16 Multiplex Theater. In that phase, jurors will listen to victim impact statements and decide if Holmes deserves death.

In this image made from Colorado Judicial Department video, James Holmes, second from left in white shirt, stands with his defense team during the sentencing phase of the Colorado theater shooting trial in C…

Holmes is accused of murder, attempted murder, weapons violations and other charges. And she reminded jurors that all four psychiatric experts who examined the gunman – even the experts hired by the court who found him legally sane – came to a strikingly similar...

She also testified that James Holmes’ sister Chris is always wondering how he’s doing, despite a relationship that was sometimes contentious when the siblings were growing up.