James Holmes (mass murderer)

Personal life

Holmes was born on December 13, 1987, in San Diego, California. His father is a mathematician and scientist with degrees from Stanford University, UCLA and UC Berkeley and his mother is a registered nurse. Holmes and his younger sister were raised in Oak Hills, where he attended elementary school. He attended a Lutheran church with his family.

When he was 12, the family moved back to San Diego and the Rancho Peñasquitos neighborhood. Holmes went to Westview High School, where he played soccer and ran cross-country, graduating in 2006. Westview accepted pupils from anywhere in the Poway Unified School District and a pupil from the time has described it as alternative schooling which was highly competitive and socially isolating.

In Aurora from 2011, Holmes lived in a one-bedroom apartment, in a building with other students involved in health studies. In a rental application for an apartment, he described himself as "quiet and easygoing".

In October 2011, Holmes began dating a fellow student, Gargi Datta, in his biology class. According to Datta, Holmes often made corny jokes that made other people feel uncomfortable. Their relationship lasted for about six months but ended because she only wanted a casual relationship and she felt distant from him. After they broke up, in an online chat, he revealed to her he had thoughts about killing people. Datta said she didn't take this conversation seriously but nevertheless, she told him to seek professional help. After the killings, Holmes told a state-appointed psychiatrist that the breakup of his relationship with his girlfriend also "contributed to his violent depression". Holmes had no criminal record and was not on any watch list.

Holmes left some digital footprints, like a university email address, an old Myspace photo and a résumé at the employment website Monster.com. According to tabloid sources, he allegedly hired prostitutes and left reviews of them online. In the weeks prior to the killings he reportedly made dating profiles on Match.com and Adult FriendFinder.

Mental health

Holmes could be quiet and when he was eight his parents took him to a counselor due to some difficulties interacting with others. He was a high achiever at school, commended for coding work. His mother felt he became sad, which she attributed to the move to San Diego when he was 12, and the family used up health insurance to have several sessions with a clinical social worker. Holmes remained quiet, which he would later explain as trying to not show weakness; his mother recalls the social worker telling her a theory that he was trying not to be happy because he was angry with her about the move. Holmes refers in his shooting notebook to a 'parasuicide' around the time, which his mother noticed and he told her it was a paper cut (reportedly cutting his wrist with cardboard while in the car because he felt ignored), and that he was given a 'clean bill of health', going on to feel homicidal in place of suicidal. According to Holmes' trial lawyer, he attempted suicide in 1999 at age 11.

Holmes' aunt had been diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder, for which she took medication and was occasionally hospitalized, but his father testified he hadn't known his non-identical twin's diagnosis. Holmes' paternal grandfather had experienced mental health problems starting from when he was at the prestigious West point military academy trainee, but his father testified he hadn't known what sort. Holmes' maternal grandfather had been diagnosed with some kind of psychotic disorder.

Holmes later reported having childhood experiences of 'nail ghosts' coming out of the walls or banging on the walls at night, though it is not clear from the media reporting whether they were nightmares or night terrors or waking hallucinations.

As he got older, those who knew him say he was socially awkward, found it hard to make casual conversation and often answered questions with a simple ‘Yes’ or ‘No’. A university classmate said he was ‘really sweet but painfully shy and lacked self-confidence'. Holmes excelled at computer games, becoming one of the top players at World of Warcraft, an online role-playing game released in 2004.

According to one source, Holmes was depressed and "obsessed with killing for over a decade". However, court-appointed forensic psychiatrist Dr William Reid, who interviewed Holmes in prison said that during these early years, Holmes didn't think about actually killing people, "rather of wishing them dead to escape from awkward social situations".

Holmes met with at least three mental health professionals at the University of Colorado prior to the massacre. Each psychiatrist who assessed him made a slightly different diagnosis. Holmes had some awareness his mental health was deteriorating. Two weeks prior to the shooting, he sent a text message asking a graduate student if the student had heard of the disorder dysphoric mania, and warning the student to stay away from him "because I am bad news".

One of the psychiatrists he saw was Dr Lynne Fenton, the medical director of the school's Student Mental Health Services. Dr Fenton saw Holmes a number of times. A month before the shootings, she reported to the campus police that Holmes had been making homicidal statements. At the trial, she testified that "Holmes told her he wanted to kill as many people as possible, but that she did not believe she had the legal authority to place him on a mental-health hold because he did not specify a target or plan".

Dr Fenton prescribed Holmes sertraline, an anti-depressant which is also used to treat obsessive compulsive disorder and social phobia. The first clear piece of evidence that Holmes' thoughts about killing other people were becoming real was an online conversation with his ex-girlfriend Gargi Datta on 25 March, four days after he was prescribed the sertraline. On 9 April, Dr Fenton doubled his dose and increased it again at their fourth appointment on 17 April. David Healy, psycho-pharmacologist and authority on the side effects of antidepressants, was hired by the defence and interviewed Holmes. He was never called to testify at the trial but told the BBC that the increased dose led to 'psychotic level thinking' and a distinct change in Holmes' personality. Healy said: "These killings would never have happened had it not been for the medication James Holmes had been prescribed.”

On July 19, just hours before the shooting started, Holmes mailed a notebook to Dr Fenton. The notebook detailed his thoughts and plans during the weeks preceding the shooting. The notebook was found in an undelivered package in the Anschutz Medical Campus mail-room. Immediately prior to the shooting, Holmes reportedly called a crisis hotline for mental health with the hopes that someone would talk him out of committing the massacre at the last minute. However, the call was disconnected after nine seconds.

Since the murders, Holmes has been seen by more than 20 psychiatric professionals. During the trial he was on five different medications including Risperidone (an anti-psychotic), Lexapro (an anti-depressant) and Vistaril (an antihistamine with sedative properties used to treat anxiety and tension).

Education and career

In 2006, Holmes worked as an intern at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies where he was assigned to write computer code for an experiment. Holmes, who was described by his supervisor as stubborn, uncommunicative and socially inept, presented his project to the other interns at the end of the internship, but never actually completed it. Holmes wrote of his experiences at the Salk Institute in a college application essay: "I had little experience in computer programming and the work was challenging to say the least. Nonetheless, I taught myself how to program in Flash and then construct a cross-temporal calibration model.... Completing the project and presenting my model at the end of the internship was exhilarating."

Graduating from Westview High School in the Torrey Highlands community of San Diego in 2006, Holmes attended the University of California, Riverside (UCR) and, in 2010, received his undergraduate degree in neuroscience with the highest honors. He was a member of several honor societies, including Phi Beta Kappa and Golden Key. According to UCR recommendation letters submitted to the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign (UIUC), Holmes graduated in the top 1% of his class with a 3.949 GPA. The UCR letters also described Holmes as "a very effective group leader" and a person who "takes an active role in his education, and brings a great amount of intellectual and emotional maturity into the classroom".

In 2008, Holmes worked as a counselor at a residential summer camp in Glendale, California, that catered to children aged 7–14. There, he was responsible for ten children and had no disciplinary problems.

In the fall of 2010, Holmes was employed at a pill- and capsule-coating factory in San Diego County. One of his coworkers said that Holmes was antisocial, and once acted strangely in a laboratory work station by staring at a wall and not verbally responding, only smirking when his coworker asked if he was okay.

In June 2011, Holmes enrolled as a Ph.D. student in neuroscience at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora. He wrote in his notebook that he subsequently mailed to Dr Fenton that he studied neurology because he hoped to fix his own "broken mind."

Holmes was awarded a $21,600 grant from the National Institutes of Health, according to agency records, which was disbursed in installments from July 2011 to June 2012. He also received a $5,000 stipend from the University of Colorado, Denver. Though Holmes received a letter of acceptance to UIUC, where he was offered a $22,600 stipend and free tuition, he declined their offer without specifying a reason. Reviewers of Holmes's application at UIUC remembered his application because he submitted a picture of himself with a llama.

In 2012, Holmes's academic performance declined, and he scored poorly on the comprehensive exam in the spring. The university was not planning to expel him; however, Holmes was in the process of withdrawing from the university. Three days after failing a key oral exam at the university in early June 2012, Holmes dropped out of his studies without further explanation. At the time of his arrest, he gave his occupation as "laborer."

Events leading to the shooting

Holmes was a fan of superheroes, including Batman, and his apartment was decorated with Batman paraphernalia. Dave Aragón, an actor from MTV television series Pimp My Ride, stated that Holmes called him twice the month prior to the shooting. Aragón is the writer, director, and star of an upcoming film entitled The Suffocator of Sins, which depicts a vigilante who shoots criminals, and Aragón claimed that Holmes showed interest in his movie's trailer.

According to Arapahoe County District Attorney George Brauchler, Holmes chose the Century 16 theater for his attack because he liked movie theaters and the specific theater had doors that he could lock in order to increase the number of casualties, as well as being in an area where police response would take longer. He specifically chose to attack a midnight screening because he believed fewer children would be present, not wanting to kill them. Holmes allegedly considered other locations for a mass shooting, such as an airport, but ruled it out because an airport would have too much security. He also wrote his reasoning that an attack on an airport would be confused as an act of terrorism, saying, "Terrorism isn't the message. The message is, there is no message." In addition, he had been considering using explosives, chemical agents, or biological agents in his attack, but rejected the scenario as he thought he might "blow himself up". Holmes had also considered serial killing as an option, but later reasoned it was "too personal, too much evidence, easily caught, few kills."

On May 22, 2012, Holmes purchased a Glock 22 pistol at a Gander Mountain shop in Aurora. Six days later, on May 28, he bought a Remington 870 Express Tactical shotgun at a Bass Pro Shops in Denver. On June 7, just hours after failing his oral exam at the university, he purchased a Smith & Wesson M&P15 rifle. All the weapons were bought legally and background checks were performed. In the four months prior to the shooting, Holmes also bought 3,000 rounds of ammunition for the pistols, 3,000 rounds for the M&P15, and 350 shells for the shotgun over the Internet. On July 2, he placed an order for a Blackhawk Urban Assault Vest, two magazine holders, and a knife at an online retailer. He also purchased spike strips, which he later admitted he planned to use in case police shot at him or followed him in a car chase.

Shooting and arrest

On July 20, 2012, police arrested Holmes without resistance while he was standing next to his car behind the Century 16 theater, moments after the shooting. Holmes had snuck out an exit door, propped it open, and returned with weapons and other gear, setting off several gas or smoke canisters and then opening fire on the theater audience, killing 12 and wounding 70. Media at the time reported the combined casualty figure as the highest for a 'mass shooting' in 'US history', without defining the terms.

According to testimonies during the following trial, Holmes was initially "calm and detached" during the arrest, but became interested in watching the aftermath of the shooting after being placed in the back of a police car. The responding officers recovered several guns from inside the car and the theater.

Once apprehended, Holmes told the police that he had booby-trapped his apartment with explosive devices before heading to the theater. Police later confirmed the presence of explosives in the apartment.

Detention and pretrial court appearances

Holmes was initially jailed at Arapahoe Detention Center, under suicide watch. He was being held in solitary confinement to protect him from other inmates, a routine precaution for high-profile cases.

Holmes made his first court appearance in Centennial, Colorado, on July 23, 2012, before Judge William B. Sylvester. He was read his rights and no bail was given due to the nature of the charges. A mandatory protection order was issued by the judge. The judge appointed a public defender. Holmes said nothing and never looked at the judge. His appearance and behavior, which was described as "dazed" and "confused" fueled speculation about his mental state. Holmes was represented by the Colorado State Public Defender.

On July 30, Colorado prosecutors filed formal charges against Holmes that included 24 counts of first degree murder, 116 counts of attempted murder, possession of explosive devices, and inciting violence. The multiple charges expand the opportunities for prosecutors to obtain convictions. For each person killed in the shooting, Holmes was charged with one count of murder with deliberation and one count of murder with extreme indifference. Holmes agreed in court to waive his right to a preliminary hearing within 35 days.

On August 9, Holmes's attorneys said their client was mentally ill and that they needed more time to assess the nature of his illness. The disclosure was made at a court hearing in Centennial where news media organizations were asking a judge to unseal court documents in the case.

On September 19, the prosecution filed a motion to add 10 new charges against Holmes and asked to amend 17 others. The additional charges would bring the total counts Holmes faces to 152. Holmes appeared in the Arapahoe County Court house the following day for the first time without his dyed-red hair, but with cropped hair revealing his natural brown color.

On September 28, court documents released by prosecutors say Holmes was revoked access to the University of Colorado campus because he threatened a professor. The university has said Holmes was denied access to non-public parts of the campus because he had withdrawn from school.

On October 11, Holmes's attorneys asked Judge William Sylvester to postpone a preliminary hearing scheduled for November. On October 25, the preliminary hearing was set for the week of January 7.

Holmes' lawyers filed an emergency motion on November 14 to delay a pre-trial hearing, citing an unspecified condition that has left him unable to appear in court: "As a result of developments over the past 24 hours, Mr. Holmes is in a condition that renders him unable to be present in court for tomorrow's hearing." They requested to delay the hearing, which they received. It was rescheduled for December. Evidently, Holmes made various suicide attempts referred to as "half-hearted" in the days before the scheduled hearing on November 15.

Holmes returned to court on January 7, 2013, at which 9-1-1 phone call recordings and videos from the cineplex were presented as evidence, information that up until then had not been released. Holmes' defense team continued to maintain that he is mentally ill. On that same day, it is reported that investigators seized four prescription bottles and immunization records from his apartment when it was searched in July 2012. It was not revealed what the prescriptions were or what they were for. The judge ultimately ruled in October that prosecutors could keep the items.

On January 10, 2013, a judge ruled that the evidence presented is sufficient for Holmes to face trial on all counts with which he has been charged. His plea hearing was delayed until March 2013.

On March 27, 2013, Holmes's attorneys said he would be willing to plead guilty to avoid the death penalty. On March 28, prosecutors said they were not ready to accept Holmes's offer to plead guilty and avoid the death penalty and also criticized the offer as a deliberate ploy by the defense in order to delay the start of the trial.

On April 1, 2013, prosecutors announced they would seek the death penalty in a trial to start in February 2014. On May 7, 2013, Holmes's attorneys filed their intent for him to plead not guilty by reason of insanity. He made this change in his plea on May 31. On May 23, 2013, Holmes's attorneys called the state's insanity-plea rules unconstitutional. On May 29, 2013, the judge ruled about the constitutionality of the laws for insanity-plea questioned by Holmes's attorneys, concluding that the laws are not in violation of the Constitution. On June 4, 2013, the presiding judge accepted his plea of insanity defense.

On August 5, 2013, Holmes was transferred to the Colorado Mental Health Institute in Pueblo, Colorado. By August 20, 2013, Holmes was no longer detained at Colorado Mental Health Institute; he was transferred back to jail.

Trial

On February 27, 2014, Arapahoe County District Court Judge Carlos Samour set the start of Holmes's trial for October 14. However, the trial was delayed to December 8 upon a defense request for a continuance to further evaluate Holmes mental condition. On that date, the trial was again postponed as Holmes' lawyers asked for another continuance to further prepare their case and review the paperwork of evidence.

Jury selection eventually started on January 20, 2015, after a request by Holmes's lawyers for yet another continuance was denied. The juror selection process lasted three months and summoned 9,000 candidates, making it the largest jury summons in U.S. history. On April 15, selection ended, with a total of nineteen women and five men serving. There were concerns about the selection of the jurors since at least two from the pool of twelve primary jurors, along with twelve alternatives, had ties to the 1999 Columbine High School massacre: "Juror No. 535", the aunt of a Columbine survivor; and "Juror No. 737", a man who was a student there at the time and also a former friend of the shooters. The trial began on April 27 with opening arguments by the prosecution explaining that Holmes intentionally went to the movie theater that evening with the deliberate intent to kill as many people as possible in a mass shooting spree. The defense opened up their argument by admitting all the facts that Holmes was indeed the shooter, but that he is mentally ill with severe schizophrenia and was never in control of his right mind. Starting on April 28, and over the next few weeks, prosecution testimony included various survivors of the massacre and the after effects it had on the survivors.

On May 26, the notebook Holmes mailed to his psychiatrist hours prior to the shooting was presented as evidence. There had previously been intense debate as to whether the notebook was eligible as evidence and should be admitted, since it details Holmes' thoughts. Prosecutors argued the content in Holmes' notebook, which detailed attack plans, proved the shooting was premeditated, while Holmes' attorneys argued that his writing indicated his mental illness.

On May 27, Dr. William Reid, a court-appointed psychiatrist who interviewed Holmes for a total of about 22 hours, testified that Holmes was mentally ill but legally sane, diagnosing him as having schizotypal personality disorder, which is characterized by constricted behavior and difficulties relating to others. Reid and another doctor evaluated Holmes in December 2013, determining him to be legally sane, and that his mental illness did not prevent him from forming intent and knowing the consequences of his actions. Holmes's attorneys tried to call for a mistrial, saying that the jurors heard an unprompted opinion that complicated the legal standard for judging the sanity of a person, but the judge refused to grant the request.

On May 29, videos of Reid's interviews with Holmes in 2013 were shown to the court. In the videos, Holmes described his social awkwardness and the violent, paranoid thoughts he had been having prior to the massacre. He also stated his belief that he was being followed by federal agents at the time of the massacre and hoped they would apprehend him at the theater before he could act. According to him, he transitioned from suicidal thoughts to homicidal thoughts after becoming depressed from his breakup with Gargi Datta. On June 8, a second psychiatrist, Jeffrey Metzner, testified that Holmes was mentally ill but legally sane when he plotted and carried out the shooting, and that he suffers from schizoaffective disorder. He interviewed Holmes for a total of 25 hours.

On June 9, the trial came to a standstill after three jurors were dismissed by the judge for violating their orders to not talk about news reports regarding the trial: "Juror No. 872", a white woman in her twenties or thirties with three children; "Juror No. 412", a white woman in her twenties or thirties who is employed with a mental health company; and "Juror No. 495", a white woman in her late twenties to early thirties. Juror No. 872 had begun discussions about sensitive details of the case with the other two jurors outside of the court on at least two occasions. Two days later, Holmes's attorneys requested the dismissal of a fourth juror after her brother-in-law was shot during a robbery the previous day, and other jurors had seen her crying. Judge Carlos Samour responded that he would consider it, and agreed to the motion by dismissing her on June 15. On June 17, a fifth juror was dismissed after Judge Samour was advised that she personally knew a wounded victim of the shooting.

On June 19, the prosecution called as their last witness Ashley Moser, the mother of slain victim Veronica Moser-Sullivan, who was critically injured and paralyzed in the shooting. Afterwards, they rested their case.

On July 9, Samour asked Holmes if he would testify in court, and advised him of his rights to do so. Holmes chose not to testify.

On July 10, the defense showed two videos of Holmes's strange behavior in his jail cell. One video showed him running and slamming his head against the wall before sitting down, while the other showed him tethered to a bed while naked, attempting to cover his head with a blanket and then a sheet. Afterwards, they rested their case.

On July 14, closing statements were made following a delay that resulted when the defense claimed some of the images planned to be shown to the jury by the prosecution were improper. The judge ordered for some of the slides to be changed or removed, explaining that they misstated or exaggerated the evidence. Jury deliberations began on July 15 and continued into July 16.

Verdict and sentencing

On July 16, after deliberating for over twelve hours, the jurors found Holmes guilty on all twenty-four counts of first-degree murder, 140 counts of attempted first-degree murder, one count of possessing explosives, and a sentence enhancement of a crime of violence. They began deciding his sentence on July 22. The court expected the sentencing phase to last for one month. Holmes declined to make an allocution statement. On July 23, the jury ruled that Holmes acted in a cruel manner, was lying in wait, and ambushed his victims during the shooting, which constitute as aggravating factors. However, the jurors decided that Holmes did not intend to kill children when he opened fire.

On July 27, Holmes' sister testified that her brother became withdrawn from the family after they moved from Salinas to San Diego during his early teenage years. On July 28, Holmes' father pleaded for his son's life, stating that he is severely mentally ill and does not deserve to die, regardless of his crimes. He displayed photos of camping trips and family vacations with Holmes to the jury. On July 30, Holmes' lawyers made a final appeal to the jurors, urging them to consider mental illness in his sentencing despite their rejection of the insanity defense used in the trial. The appeal for clemency was rejected on August 3, under the basis that mitigating factors such as mental illness did not outweigh aggravating factors such as the number of casualties in the massacre.

On August 7, Holmes was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole after jurors failed to unanimously agree on a death sentence. Soon afterwards, one juror made statements which were interpreted by the DA and then by media, as indicating only one 'holdout' juror was opposed to the death penalty for Holmes, while two other jurors were uncertain. Another distressed juror subsequently came forward anonymously and clarified that in fact three jurors were firmly against the death penalty due to the evidence of a delusional mental illness. Formal sentencing began on August 24 and ended on August 26. On August 26, Samour formally sentenced Holmes to 12 life sentences without the possibility of parole for the murder charges, and an additional 3,318 years for the attempted murder and explosives possession charges.

Restitution

On December 4, 2015, Judge Carlos Samour ordered Holmes to pay $955,000 in restitution to the victims. The judgment ordered $851,000 of the restitution to be sent to the state victim compensation fund, and $103,000 to be paid directly to the victims.

Imprisonment

In September 2015, Holmes was moved to the Colorado State Penitentiary in Cañon City. According to authorities, they have not determined what facility Holmes will be ultimately incarcerated at, but say it is possible he may be moved out of state due to his high profile.

On October 8, 2015, Holmes was assaulted by another inmate, identified as Mark Daniels, who was convicted of auto theft. Daniels attacked Holmes after a prison guard inadvertently opened a gate separating the two of them; he struck Holmes twice before being subdued by prison staff. At the time, Holmes was not allowed interaction with other inmates. As a result of the attack, he was secretly transferred to an undisclosed location out of the state.