Defense: Aurora shooting suspect saw psychiatrist

Updated at 9:22 p.m. ET

(CBS/AP) DENVER - The former graduate student accused in the deadly Colorado movie theater shooting was being treated by a psychiatrist at the university where he studied, a revelation that adds to suspicions that his life was in turmoil in the year before the rampage.

Attorneys for James Holmes, 24, made the disclosure in a court motion Friday as they sought to discover the source of leaks to some media outlets that he sent the psychiatrist a package containing a notebook with descriptions of an attack.

The motion said the leak jeopardized Holmes' right to a fair trial and violated a judge's gag order.

The lawyers added that the package contained communications between Holmes and his psychiatrist that should be shielded from public view. The document describes Holmes as a "psychiatric patient" of Dr. Lynne Fenton.

A group of 21 news organizations, including CBS News, is asking a judge to reverse his order sealing court records in the case.

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The motion did not reveal when Holmes began seeing Fenton or whether he was being treated for a mental illness. Legal analysts expect Holmes' attorneys to use an insanity defense at trial. Holmes is scheduled to be arraigned Monday.

Calls to Holmes' lawyer and the state public defender's office were not immediately returned, as was a message left with Fenton's office. The University of Colorado's website identifies her as the medical director of the school's Student Mental Health Services.

A spokeswoman for the Arapahoe County prosecutor's office declined comment.

In the week since the attack, few details have emerged about Holmes' life since June 2011, when he enrolled in a prestigious doctoral program in neuroscience at the University of Colorado-Denver Anschutz medical campus. He left without explanation in June. University officials have refused to disclose much more about Holmes, citing an order from the judge barring it from releasing information that would "impede an ongoing investigation." Staff, professors and classmates have been mum about his life at the school.

Previously, CBS News senior correspondent John Miller reported that U.S. postal inspectors had been searching through the mailboxes near Holmes' home looking for letters and packages he might have sent out. They didn't find any, but that's because the package had already been sent before the shooting.

On Monday afternoon, investigators scoured the mailroom at the University of Colorado-Denver/Anschutz Medical Campus and found what they'd been searching for: a piece of mail from the suspect in the Aurora, Colo., shooting that killed 12 people and injured 58 at a midnight screening of the new Batman film last week.

Before opening it, the sheriff's bomb squad handled it with a robot and took an X-ray, just in case there were explosives inside.

Sources told Miller the letter was from a pent-up Holmes to one of his professors. In it, he talked about shooting people and even included crude drawings of a gunman and his victims.

It's unclear if it was sent before the attack at the July 20 midnight showing of "The Dark Knight Rises" that left 12 dead and dozens of others injured.

19 Photos

The Colorado massacre suspect

Holmes' appearance at his first court hearing on Monday stunned the victims' families and fueled speculation about the state of his mental health. His hair dyed a shocking comic-book shade of orange-red, he looked sleepy and, at times, inattentive.

Prosecutors said they didn't know if he was being medicated.

The motion Friday, however, was the first confirmation from the defense that Holmes was seeing a psychiatrist and that he had sent a package to the doctor.

Authorities said Holmes legally purchased four guns before the attack at Denver-area sporting goods stores — a semiautomatic rifle, a shotgun and two pistols. To buy the guns, Holmes had to pass background checks that can take as little as 20 minutes in Colorado.

Federal law bars from purchasing firearms people who have been found mentally defective by a judge or who have been committed to a mental health institution, said Benjamin Van Houten of the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence.

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[thprop]

The real question here is not guilt or innocence in my opinion. Judgement is by a jury of his peers in a legal setting if he is found to be sane . The real challenge is to get to the truth if we can and give everyone the chance to learn and understand how this tragedy occured. From what I've read, Holmes has been a decent citizen and worked towards a career in a difficult field. When a person has no history of violence and suddenly "snaps" and kills people, the challenge for "closure" and "justice" is to break through the barriers and give answers to people's questions. If Holmes was desperate and under duress from vocies and exhaustion, his justice and redemption are better served by giving all parties a chance to gather their thoughts and let clearer heads prevail. If I were Holmes, I would perfer to feel remorse and sadness for my victims when my day of justice prevailed, and victims and famalies should have the right to not just "hate and seek revenge". Justice should be given not taken.

[Mick_from_Amsterdam]

by ronjamison July 27, 2012 5:32 PM EDT

the right to bare arms is not for hunting as you seem to think, it is as a last line of defense against tyranny.


**********************************************

And you can hardly wait...can you, ronjamison?

Is that the way you all talk at the meetings...patriotic, fearless...and psychotic?

[audemus]

Mick-from-Amsterdam.....although embarrassing and sad, you expressed the reality of the gun situation in the U.S. perfectly.

[aurorabear55]

I lived with psychosis off and on between 2/10/98 and sometime in 2001. I was a registered nurse at the pediatric hospital at Stanford. I was diagnosed with bipolar disease. During the times I was "psychotic" while my memory is intact at the time, I wass found to be too sick to understnad the risks and benefits of medications. I was forced to take medication and have been living on my own for years.
I know it would have been better to be dead than to be living with psychosis that was not responding to medication.. Bipolar is a neuropsychiatric brain disease, the so called "mental" illness, stigmatizes the disease and does nothing to regard to how complicated the transmission of brain chemcials to neurotransmitters is. Medication gave me my life back.

I realize that people are mad at this tragedy and they want an explanation, having lived with psychosis, I am an authority to say I know it was the brain disease that made him "snap".
I wish to see this man get psychiatric care and be treated for the disease that ravaged his brain and let him act with regard to impulses.

[hypnotoad72]

Let's fix society's problems so that more incidents like the one people are crying over won't happen again. How many mass shootings took place in the 1950s and 1960s? Why did such people commit such acts back then? Have we evolved since then? Or devolved?

This means more than just buying more video cameras to make a police state. If we value people being free and the true definitions of freedom. Which is more likely going to cause a person to psychologically break - a constrained society or a free one?

So, how free are we as a society? Are you better off now than you were 30 years ago, for example? Don't believe me? Then find some articles and charts - I've posted them many times in the past.

But we are a society that will hawk Bonnie and Clyde's guns, Hitler's car, etc, for monetary gain. As a result, the Colorado shooter's weapons will be sold off as well. It's only a matter of time and he will be given the same disgusting celebrity status as the other trash whose names I reluctantly mentioned.

Sorry to be thoughtful of the larger picture.

And sorry to cut and paste.

[aurorabear55]

This has nothing to with a social de-evolution. This has to do with the fact that awareness of what neuropsychatric brain diseases do to the brain is not well understood by people. I have lived it and was diagnosed with bipolar disease in 2001. I have lived with this myslef and know that while I remember most of what I did, I was not in control when the disease had not yet been treated. The medications exist to help people because neuropsychiatrists understand the brain. The so called "mental" health system does not come forth and state the intracacies of a brain disease.. They are biological. The system needs to change the name to reflect the illness and people need to understand the laws make it hard to force anyone to be treated.

[goodnightandgoodluck]

Absolutely not buying Holmes' story, not for one second...this was planned (most likely with the aid and support of other radicals) and Holmes also planned his cover - which is to make everyone believe that he is mentally unstable so that he can get away with murder (and blame the lack of universal care that would afford mental healthcare). For all we know, this could very well be a strategically staged event by members of Black Bloch (which, in all likelihood is the American version of a terrorist cell) attempting to wreak havoc on society and get Americans scared enough to take up arms (which they did, noting the 41% rise in gun sales post shooting). Some at Occupy, in a variety of ways, are stirring up civil unrest (often co-opting otherwise peaceful indigenous protests and trying to turn them violently against the state), such as what happened in the Hispanic community in Anaheim. After having spent considerable time with and researching the Occupy operation, it appears that some members of Occupy would like nothing better than to see the US be violently overthrown and sit back and blame it on either indigenous groups or random crazed killers. Example: careful observation of Holmes during his court appearances suggest that Holmes was actually processing information (not out of it, as some have suggested) and any of his behaviorisms appear to be staged to gain full attention. This includes going for mental healthcare in advance of the event, which is completely inconsistent with what others observed of him, sending the package to the professor (in attempt to solidify his defense, but wait a second, it also goes to intent and malice of forethought...some may think he is crazy, yeah, as crazy as a cunning fox), and his died hair (seriously, more for the show). Many in the Occupy movement have been screaming about the lack of mental healthcare and the coincidences are just to overwhelming to ignore. My heart goes out to all those who have suffered from this terrible event and I hope the government gives Holmes life in population without possibility of parole - let the inmates take care of him, just like Dahmer, who everyone also thought was crazy, but wasn't. Good riddance!

[payasyougo]

Based on data from thses types of events over the last 22 years, if any new limiting legislation is produced it needs to prevent gun sales to active students and any college dropouts. Maybe anyone with less than a B gpa.

[foo8259]

Perhaps autopsy will eventually reveal the suspect had a brain tumor, similar to Charles 'Texas Tower' Whitman -- Americas first and most well known mass killer? "In the late sixties, the phenomenon of mass murder was relatively unknown. An explosion of unprovoked deadly violence against complete strangers was still an anomaly. On August 1, 1966, Charles Whitman rode an elevator to the 27th floor of Austin's University of Texas bell tower ..." -- suite101.com/article/mass-murderer-charles-whitman-a216765

[lami987]

All persons applying for gun permits must pass mental evaluations, gun safety trainings and shown documentary video clips on tragedies resulted from gun accidents. Permits must be renewed every so many years like driving licenses.

[Mick_from_Amsterdam]

Great idea...

But then half of the cops in America would be walking around unarmed

[fredricwilliams]

This article, and several others, describes "intimate, competitive neuroscience program" at the University of Colorado as if it were one of the best in the nation. That appears to be inaccurate. According to the Chronicle of Higher Education report of the National Research Council, it would rank behind perhaps fifty other schools. So to call this "a prestigious doctoral program" would seem misleading -- and would suggest the killer is more intelligent than appears to be the case. His failure in the first year of a mediocre program would indicate that he is -- as one researcher is reported to have said -- "a dolt." No doubt his good grades as an undergraduate successfully hid his stupidity for a time.

[marcie10000]

Fredric - CU Denver's graduate medical school is ranked 35th in the USA. That's pretty prestigious.

[kbbpll]

"It's unclear if it was sent before the attack" - I just love all the mindless speculation that journalists feel compelled to interject into articles like this. So, maybe it was sent _after_ the attack? Gosh, what a mystery. Was the letter sent before or after the attack? We sure need to get to the bottom of this inexplicable detail.

[jennifermichele29]

i really think this Holmes dude should rot in hell and never be able to get out ..look at all the insentient ppl he shot and killed.. i just think there is alot of ppl getting away with **** now days ..look for instance Casey Anthony.. i just really hope this dude doesnt ever get out and he rots in hell for all the poor ppl he has killed and shot..i wish those ppl family the best and there in my prayers ..