Summary: Now the public can see what jurors were shown as evidence in the four-month trial against Aurora, Colorado movie theater shooter James Holmes.
The new photos released in response to open-records requests show a more visual side to Colorado movie theater shooter James Holmes. There is no question that Holmes knew what he was doing and carefully planned his attack on the movie theater where people were seeing a midnight showing of Dark Knight Rises in 2012. His lawyers had tried to use his mental status as an excuse but there was too much planning to believe that story.
The shooting killed 12 people and injured 70 more, many of which will never completely recover from their injuries. The photos released include his car where he dressed in head-to-toe body armor before entering the packed theater.
Other images that were shown to the jurors were of his apartment that he had rigged with explosives and homemade bombs in an attempt to further injure anyone that entered his apartment. The trial only lasted four months and ended with one juror not willing to agree to the death sentence. Holmes was ultimately sentenced to life in prison without parole.
Holmes had moved to Colorado from California around a year before the attack to attend the University of Colorado in Denver. He was a part of the university’s prestigious neuroscience program. Holmes had recently broken up with his girlfriend and had just failed a big test, resulting in him dropping out. Investigators know that he was already planning the attack when all this happened.
Holmes had planned to divert first responders away from the movie theater by blowing up his apartment but luckily that plan did not work.
Photo of Holmes: cbsnews.com
Photo #1: nypost.com
Photo #2: nbcnews.com