Aurora movie theater shooting suspect James Holmes to be formally charged

Aurora shooting suspect James Holmes seen in a first court appearance on July 23, 2012.

(AP) DENVER - Launching a case that legal analysts expect to be dominated by arguments over the defendant's sanity, Colorado prosecutors are filing formal charges Monday against James Eagan Holmes, the former neuroscience student accused of killing 12 people and wounding 58 others at an Aurora movie theater.

Attorneys also are arguing over a defense motion to find out who leaked information to the news media about a package the 24-year-old former neuroscience graduate student allegedly sent to his psychiatrist at the University of Colorado Denver.

Authorities seized the package July 23, three days after the shooting, after finding it in the mailroom of the medical campus where Holmes studied. Several media outlets reported that it contained a notebook with descriptions of an attack, but Arapahoe County District Attorney Carol Chambers said in court papers that the parcel hadn't been opened by the time the "inaccurate" news reports appeared.

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Holmes allegedly began stockpiling gear for his assault four months ago, and authorities say he bought his weapons in May and June, well before the shooting spree just after midnight during a showing of the Batman film "The Dark Knight Rises." He was arrested by police outside the theater.

Analysts say that means it's likely there's only one main point of legal dispute between prosecutors and the defense.

"I don't think it's too hard to predict the path of this proceeding," said Craig Silverman, a former chief deputy district attorney in Denver. "This is not a whodunit. ... The only possible defense is insanity."

19 Photos

The Colorado massacre suspect

Under Colorado law, defendants are not legally liable for their acts if their minds are so "diseased" that they cannot distinguish between right and wrong. However, the law warns that "care should be taken not to confuse such mental disease or defect with moral obliquity, mental depravity, or passion growing out of anger, revenge, hatred, or other motives, and kindred evil conditions."

Experts say there are two levels of insanity defenses. Holmes' public defenders could argue he is not mentally competent to stand trial, like Jared Loughner, who killed six people when he shot Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in Tucson in 2011. Loughner has pleaded not guilty to charges in the shooting. He has been diagnosed with schizophrenia and is undergoing treatment at a Missouri prison facility in a bid to make him mentally fit to stand trial.

If Holmes' attorneys cannot convince the court that he is mentally incompetent, and he is convicted, they can try to stave off a possible death penalty by arguing he is mentally ill. Prosecutors will decide whether to seek the death penalty in the coming weeks.

Holmes was not expected to enter pleas on Monday.

Holmes ultimately could enter a plea to the anticipated dozen first-degree murder charges verbally, or his attorneys could enter it for him. Prosecutors may file multiple counts of attempted first-degree murder and other charges against Holmes, whom Aurora police say booby-trapped his apartment with the intent to kill any officers responding there the night of the theater attack.

A woman who was critically wounded and whose 6-year-old daughter was killed suffered a miscarriage, her family said Saturday. The family of Ashley Moser said the trauma caused the miscarriage. Moser's daughter, Veronica Moser-Sullivan, was the youngest person killed in the attack.

57 Photos

Shooting rampage in Colo. theater

Sam Kamin, a law professor at the University of Denver, said there is "pronounced" evidence that the attack was premeditated, which would seem to make an insanity defense difficult. "But," he said, "the things that we don't know are what this case is going to hinge on, and that's his mental state."

With an unruly mop of orange hair, Holmes appeared bleary-eyed and distracted during his brief initial appearance in court last week. He did not speak.

Friends in Southern California, where Holmes grew up, describe him as a smart, sometimes awkward youth fascinated by science. He came to Colorado's competitive neuroscience doctoral program in June 2011. A year later, he dropped out shortly after taking his year-end exam.

District Court Judge William Blair Sylvester has tried to tightly control the flow of information about Holmes, placing a gag order on lawyers and law enforcement, sealing the court file and barring the university from releasing public records relating to Holmes' year there. A consortium of media organizations, including The Associated Press, is challenging Sylvester's sealing of the court file.

On Friday, court papers revealed that Holmes was seeing a psychiatrist at the university. But they did not say how long he was seeing Dr. Lynne Fenton and if it was for a mental illness or another problem.

The University of Colorado's website identified Fenton as the medical director of the school's Student Mental Health Services. An online resume listed schizophrenia as one of her research interests and stated that she sees 10 to 15 graduate students a week for medication and psychotherapy, as well as 5 to 10 patients in her general practice as a psychiatrist.

Authorities say 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.

[commentingnow]

Just a guess, but if Holmes refuses to let prosecutors have his psychiatrist's notes, a jury might be likely to see that as deception, as an attempt to hide the truth. Sure, the judge and the defense would tell them they can't factor that in, but people are people. If someone's really that "crazy," why wouldn't they want the world to know they were insane when they went on a shooting spree? And if the defendant is too disturbed to even make the choice about the records, then why wouldn't his family want the world to know what the psychiatrist thought?

[UncleGoodnBerry]

As a Former Studio Artist.. I was SO moved by the SENSELESS killing in COLORADO.. Because I was on vacation with ~ my ~ family at the time when this happened. we were Horrified and Deeply Saddened.. When I flew home, I HAD to get this MESSAGE out..!
STOP the VIOLENCE.. not gun control.. Harder punishment for Capital Crimes Once and for ALL ! No Pardon,, No Need...
I HOPE you will all support the Families of the Fallen in any small or large way.. EVEN if you just PASS this MESSAGE on to someone else... At least that's a start..
http://www.cafepress.com/relieffundforcoloradovictims

[shipwrecked54]

ok..how much money are we (taxpayers) going to spend to defend this guy? We spent over 16 million on Tim McViegh. When is the last time the government spent 10 cents on you? Stop the insanity!!

[BippityBoppityBlue]

Oh my God, that HAIR. You know that's some crazy, right there. Who in God's name in their right mind actually colors their hair like that, ON PURPOSE?!?

[Transman52]

Someone who wants to APPEAR insane, that's who....
He has an extensive background in studies on insanity. He KNOWS how to "play" the role.

[neomalysys]

People who intentionally want to distinguish themselves from others. In this case it is probably an attempt by Holmes to appear mentally unstable just like Transman52 said. In most individuals it is used as a way to stand out in the crowd and draw attention to themselves.

[Transman52]

I believe the shooter's whole insanity act is just an act. He has studied profusely how to claim insanity for the commission of his fantasy. He apparently had everything so meticulously planned out that he actually didn't think he would be caught (but studied how to claim insanity, if caught). He was going to play "the joker" again and again. This kid is brilliant. He planted the notebook where he could go back and get it if his fantasy run was successful, and that it would be found, if not. He studied psychiatry and neuroscience, and knows expertly how to claim insanity. After planning and securing some of the materials needed for his fantasy, he contacted a psychiatrist to back up his future claim of insanity, if caught. The justice system does not stand a chance against this highly intelligent megalo-maniac. He IS the "joker," just like the movie villain.

[claytoncramer]

You don't suppose that he studied insanity because he knew he was losing his mental health?

What sane person murders dozens of complete strangers for no personal gain?

[Transman52]

claytoncramer, if he was losing his mental health, he would not have known it. True insane people think everyone else is wrong, crazy, out to get them, etc. They do not realize that they are insane. They no longer can tell right from wrong. This guy's meticulous planning and execution of his plan shows his complete diabolical sanity, not insanity. His personal gain was to make his fantasy real, to live it. And to get away with it. The insanity defense is staged, just like all the other preparations to carry out his fantasy.

[Rejco100]

Of course Big Pharma & its Psycho-Wackos who medicated Mr. Holmes into a HOMICIDAL MANIAC have no accountability with their extremely toxic BRAIN-FRYING drugs...

[BippityBoppityBlue]

Of course not. There's a teenager in prison right now for killing his grandmother, he'll probably never again see the light of day and why? Because his DOCTOR prescribed medications for him in ADULT DOSES. And because he was poor and had no money for a decent legal defense, his lackadaisical, LAZY PUBLIC DEFENDER never brought it up in court. It was only later that it was "discovered" - this child had been medicated to the hilt. Then he snapped. Big surprise, huh?

[claytoncramer]

Yet many of these mass murders are performed by people not taking medications of any sort. Failure of these medicines to work consistently does not mean that they cause the problem. Crazy people do these things with and without treatment.

Nor is there any evidence yet that Holmes was taking any antipsychotic medications.

[AnnieDanny]

They're already trying to lay the case that he has mental problems. I think anybody who murders has mental problems, so why is that an issue of guilt or innocence?

I think the issue of Insanity needs to be re-evaluated completely. Maybe humans become insane BECAUSE we choose to murder; it happens WHEN we make that choice in our minds and set about doing it. Seems as if the insanity begins when we make the choice, even before we do it. And if that's the case, then insanity could not possibly be an excuse: it's part of the process. A very unhealthy mental process: not too much different from eating unhealthy until you end up sick from bad choices??

I'm not a psychiatrist, I just wonder about this kind of stuff. I don't buy it, that insanity is an excuse for horrible behavior.

Our society has "indulged" in exploring violence and perversion in all our movies, books and games; it's everywhere. But I've always believed that such indulgence is extremely dangerous. I think we're stupid for writing it, stupid for producing it, stupid for watching it. And yet still we don't STOP, even though violence and perversion are escalating in this world as a result of it.

Seems as if this guy was living out a sick violent fantasy. Maybe it was sick, but they'd have a hard time convincing me that insanity is an excuse for what he deliberately planned over weeks and months.

[RubioTheFourth]

Does anyone know if his formal charges will be aired LIVE on telivision ?

[baileycccc]

In cases like this we should do what Saudi Arabia does. Torture him until we get the information we want, then kill him. He is not worthy of press and the expense to execute him.

[LegallyArmed]

He was sane enough to order the weapons, the ammo, and to plan the attack, so he's sane enough tried and convicted. For that matter, forget the trial. Much less costly to take him on a one-way helicopter ride 100 miles out into the Atlantic Ocean.

[claytoncramer]

The legal definition of insanity is much narrower than the medical definition. He may well be legally sane, in spite of apparent mental illness.