Colo. suspect's parents stand by him, lawyer says

Lisa Damiani, a lawyer representing family members of Colorado mass shooting suspect James Holmes, addresses the media in San Diego, July 23, 2012. / CBS

(CBS/AP) SAN DIEGO - A lawyer representing parents of the suspect in the Colorado mass shooting says they stand by their son but their hearts go out to the victims and their families.

Lisa Damiani met reporters Monday in San Diego.

She's representing the family of 24-year-old James Holmes, who made his first court appearance Monday in a Denver suburb where he's being held without bond.

Asked if Holmes' family stands by him, Damiani said: "Yes they do. He's their son."

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Damiani refused to answer questions about Holmes and his relationship to the family. She would not say whether either parent has been in contact with him.

When asked how the family was coping, Damiani said they are "doing as well as they can under the circumstances." She said later: "Everyone's concerned" about the possibility of the death penalty.

Damiani also said a comment Holmes' mother made to ABC News just hours after the shooting was mischaracterized by the network.

Reading a statement she attributed to Arlene Holmes, Damiani said Arlene Holmes' statement "You have the right person" to an ABC reporter referred to herself, not her son.

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Shooting rampage in Colo. theater

[jnostromo]

The parents are in denial...

[David52coop]

What kind of family are they? "Everyone's concerned" about the possibility of the death penalty." Huh?
Their son was judge, jury and executioner for 12 people, including a 6 year old girl. There are more of their son's victim's suffering in hospitals. These parent's priorities are so wrong. Hire your son a lawyer, keep your mouth shut about the death penalty and continue to express sympathy for their son's victims.

[DemonKitten4]

My heart goes out to the victims 100% and I am by no means opposed to the death penalty for this guy. However, its their son. If you don't have kids you wont understand but this women carried him for 9 months, raised him..without a thought that he would end up killing 12 people when he got older. Its her Son, regardless of what he has done, its her son. I get that...could you possibly handle being in her shoes? I can't, a parents love is unconditional and sometimes irrational and it should be. Try putting yourself in her place if you have kids you would understand easier. If not then you never will be able to until you do.

I cant even imagine the war inside her right now between disgust for what he did and the mothers love that comes from the first time you feel your child kick in your belly.

[scsdrally4recess]

Their son has paranoid schizophrenia. My father had paranoid schizophrenia; he became ill when I was four-years-old. People with schizophrenia do not share our reality. As a child, I watched my father's suffering and the loss of him, although he always was my dad and lived in our home, was profound, my grief was profound. Having lived with a psychotically-ill person with paranoid schizophrenia, I can share with you that James Holmes thought he was interacting in a movie. He had no sense of the reality of what was occuring around him. He was a young man not living with his family or any other person that had a sense of responsibility for his welfare; he needed for someone to hospitalize him. Hospitalizing someone with a major mental illness is not the same as hospitalizing someone with a physical illness. As a family, we would cry and beg for help from the mental health system. We couldn't get any help. My father would get so sick and so psychotic that no one could sleep in the house....his psychotic world would crash into the world that we were living in and it was scarey. To get my father into the hospital I would call the State Police, or my mother would. We were desperate even though we lived directly with my father! I believe that society must learn the signs and symptoms of paranoid schizophrenia and react to them as if a heart attack or a stroke was occuring before your eyes or as if a choking victim was before you. People suffer and die because the person dissolving from psychosis is ignored. ("not my business!") I used to feel so angry that someone had to die, now I cope with my grief by striving to educate others about schizophrenia. Everyone had a right to their life, including James Holmes. Having a mental illness such as schizophrenia should not sentence anyone to death and to prison. Whoever he was is gone forever too.....the illness has taken over who ever he was and he will never return. There is enough sorrow in this story for everyone involved, including James Holmes parents.

[seymourfish]

The parents need to make a choice. They have a son who committed this horrific crime and now refuses to cooperate with the authorities. The parents will either have to side with the LAW and see that their son is punished for what he did, or they will have to side with a defense team that in this country will mean that they will try to get him off for what he did. They would have been better off saying that they still love him but...whatever the truth is. If the truth is that they want him to take responsibility for what he did, they should say so. What they have said so far makes it sound like they hope he won't have to be punished, (that they hope he can just shut up and some defense team can grant him what he did not grant others. Life). I would hope that people understand your love for your child does not end when they do something bad. But you still are forced to take a stand one way or the other. There is no middle ground.

[David52coop]

Seymourfish,

You are so correct in your statements.

[MelissaDawn4]

Really?!? Hold the parents responsible?!? At what age is someone completely responsible for themselves? Should we throw every parent in their 70s in jail if their son/daughter decided to rob a bank in their 40s? My brother and I were raised in the same house by the same parents and we are (were, he's dead thanks to a drunk driver who only got 5 years prison time) as different as night and day. Parenting only goes so far, there are many, many other factors that contribute to how a person turns out.

[austincoog]

Too bad this didn't happen in Texas where there wouldn't be much chance of anything but the death penalty being given to this freak;Unfortuneately, he'll plead insanity and get life and his parents will be able to visit him every year and his victim's parents only have a grave and memories left for them.

[djseavy]

It probably means just what it says - they aren't abandoning their son. That doesn't mean they are at all happy with what he did - in fact they are probably going over every inch of their lives thinking maybe they didn't do a good job of parenting. That's a natural reaction. And it isn't a load of crap. If he were my son I would be in total horror by what he did, but I wouldn't disown him. I hope you don't have kids, since it's obvious you have no idea what "family" means.

[llreilly]

These parents 'molded' this person as a human being and should share the blame. It seems quite clear the boy was the polar opposite of all the victims who were full of life with a number of friends, relationships and bright futures. He seemed quite pathetic which I am sure the parents could see. I have family and regardless of the age of my children they would never be far from my love and attention. These parents did nothing when a parent should have. The victims parents are testaments to what great parents are. Not these pathetic losers.

[sjc_1]

Convict and execute, there is a place waiting in hell.

[SUZAMBA]

What else can they do, their lives will be turned up side down, because their lives will be inspected and speculated on by the media. Everyone will want to know what his childhood was like to have turned him into such a monster.

[wardove]

they love their son unconditionally

[jt92202]

Sad how one person can do so much damage to so many different people! Of course his parents will stand by him, that does not mean they condon what he did but he is their son! I would be horrified but no matter what I would love my child, doesn't mean I wouldn't want the full extent of the law to come down on him!!

[GeWay]

DC Lover, you apparently don't read very well. Your comment has nothing to do with what the poster said.