Carlos Armando Samour Jr. is the chief judge for the Eighteenth Judicial District Court in Colorado. He was appointed to the court in 2006 and took office in 2007. Samour won retention in the November 2016 general election. He is known for serving as the judge for the trial of James Eagan Holmes, the convicted perpetrator of the 2012 Aurora shooting.
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Early life
Samour was born in El Salvador, and came to the United States in 1979 when he was 13 years old. His family fled El Salvador due to the civil war that was occurring. He graduated from Columbine High School in 1983. Samour received his undergraduate degree in psychology from the University of Colorado at Denver. He was awarded his J.D. degree from the University of Denver.
Career
Samour served as a deputy district attorney in Denver, Colorado, for ten years. He also previously practiced law with the firm of Holland & Hart. He began his legal career serving for one year as a law clerk for former Judge Robert McWilliams of the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. Samour was retained to the Eighteenth Judicial District Court for a six-year term, winning 62.18 percent of the vote.
Samour is currently serving as judge on the trial for James Eagan Holmes, the convicted perpetrator of the 2012 Aurora shooting, in which 12 people were killed and 70 others were injured at a movie theater. The trial began on April 27, 2015. While the trial was initially expected to last for about four or five months, Samour stated in June that his goal was to have a verdict and sentencing by July and August. Since the trial started, Samour dismissed five jurors. On July 16, 2015, Holmes was found guilty of all charges.