Colo. shooting suspect James Holmes' lawyers: He's mentally ill

Updated 7:58 PM ET

(CBS/AP) CENTENNIAL, Colo. - Attorneys for the suspect in the Colorado movie theater shootings said Thursday their client is mentally ill and that they need more time to assess the nature of his illness.

James Holmes' lawyers made the disclosure at a court hearing in suburban Denver where news media organizations were asking a judge to unseal court documents in the case.

Holmes, a 24-year-old former Ph.D. student at the University of Colorado, Denver, had the familiar, dazed demeanor that he has had in previous court appearances.

Holmes is accused of going on a July 20 shooting rampage at a midnight showing of the latest Batman movie in Aurora, killing 12 people dead and injuring 58 others.

Defense attorney Daniel King made the revelation about Holmes as he argued defense attorneys need more information from prosecutors and investigators to assess their client.

"We cannot begin to assess the nature and the depth of Mr. Holmes' mental illness until we receive full disclosure," he said.

King said Holmes sought out university psychiatrist, Lynne Fenton, for help. He did not elaborate. A hearing was scheduled for Aug. 16 to establish whether there is a doctor-patient relationship between Fenton and Holmes. CBS News has learned Fenton reported concerns about Holmes to University of Colorado police. The university has retained attorneys for both Dr. Fenton and the police officer.

The hearing was held because CBS News, the Associated Press, and 19 other news organizations are asking Chief District Judge William Sylvester to make available documents that could provide details about Holmes and the July 20 attack.

Holmes did not have to be in court, CBS news correspondent John Blackstone reports, but his lawyers made no requests to have his presence waived.

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Arapahoe County prosecutors said earlier that releasing documents could jeopardize their investigation. Holmes' attorneys want to ensure he receives a fair trial.

Sylvester's order sealing documents includes the case file, which makes it impossible for observers to understand prosecution and defense arguments on motions that are referenced by number only.

Sylvester on July 23 also issued a gag order that bars officials at the University of Colorado from responding to public records requests concerning Holmes.

The judge said doing so would jeopardize the county's investigation. Aurora officials have cited the order in declining to speak about the city's response to the shootings.

19 Photos

The Colorado massacre suspect

"It is performing our watchdog role to look at the process and try to assess for the public how the police have handled the case and assembled the evidence and assure for the defendant and the public that things are being conducted open and fairly," said Gregory Moore, editor of The Denver Post. "It goes way beyond what's necessary to protect the defendant's right to a fair trial."

Court documents, which include search warrants, inventories of evidence collected by police and police interviews with witnesses can be an important source of information for the public.

Little is known about how police say Holmes prepared for the shooting, or how they say he rigged his nearby apartment with explosives. Aurora Police Chief Daniel Oates has said the explosives were designed to kill anybody who entered, including first-responders.

Steven D. Zansberg, an attorney representing the news media consortium, said the judge should at least explain which documents have been sealed and why.

In Colorado, this type of legal battle has been seen before.

In 2007, an Arapahoe County judge sealed an indictment in the case of a missing 6-year-old girl whom authorities determined had been dead for at least two years before her father, Aaron Thompson, reported her missing. The state Supreme Court ordered the indictment unsealed in 2008, allowing the public to learn the charges against Thompson. Thompson was convicted of fatal child abuse in 2009.

When Los Angeles Lakers player Kobe Bryant faced sexual assault charges in Vail in 2003, it took a media challenge to unseal an affidavit in which police laid out their case for an arrest. Bryant maintained his innocence, and prosecutors dropped the case in 2005.

A news media challenge led to last year's release of an arrest affidavit in a sexual assault case involving former Denver Broncos cornerback Perrish Cox. Cox was acquitted in March.

Defense attorneys and prosecutors routinely ask judges to keep some documents sealed, often because the documents contain information a jury won't hear at trial, said Denver criminal defense attorney Daniel Recht, who also argues First Amendment cases.

But Moore noted that some Colorado judges have sealed entire court dockets under the argument that the mere fact of media coverage will damage a case.

In his ruling to unseal documents in the Cox case, Douglas County District Judge Paul A. King rejected that notion. "There can be no presumption that everyone in the jury panel will read, follow and find important the media accounts in this case," King wrote.

23 Photos

The Aurora shooting victims

[noduleata]

Who are they going to get to shrink him, a team from the highly competent Uni Colorado Faculty of Medicine. For the best in depth analysis of the entire shebang click on

http://www.tumblr.com/blog/noduleata

with much more to come. Everything you ever wanted to know about schizophrenia in case you are considering it as a career path. Enrollment at the above Uni closes soon.

[lookiehyah]

i came across your link to the tumblr blog on a different article. tumblr wont let me access it.

[amsdragonfly]

"killing 12 people dead..." Come on. It's "killing 12 people." You don't need to say their dead twice! I hate it when "professional" articles are full of grammar mistakes.

[sallacadula]

Very sad. Clearly, he is schizophrenic and was unable to control himself because of serious mental illness. Too doggone bad his cry for help, the communication to his psychiatrist, was not delivered to her in time to prevent this tragedy.

[82ndairbornediv]

WOW! No kidding? I suspected that he might be as crazy as a outhouse rat. I guess that qualifies me to be a professional psychiatrist. When will my diploma arrive in the mail?

[newporke]

Really? Who cares? Impale him, then set him on fire!

[ZenMed]

Since this sh**bag already an existing human being, the best solution is to SOMEHOW make him a productive member of society. It is almost certain he would act helpless, so therefore the best solution is to donate all his organs to science... *but while he is still conscious.

[SUZAMBA]

This was not a sudden spur of the moment decision he made. He planned it. He rigged his apartment to explode as a diversion. He wore body armor, he waited for the perfect moment to start his killing spree!
PREMEDITATED!!! This is what he did. He knew exactly what he wanted to do and he did. The lawyers will play him as being mentally ill and had no clear knowledge of what he was doing at the time. He seemed pretty knowledgeable to me!

[82ndairbornediv]

Being crazy does not mean someone is incapable of planning an complex act. Only being stupid does that.

[Vetzero58]

Now...why don't we just let some professional mental health specialist and Doctors have a look at James Holmes and we'll just see for ourselves if the cheese slipped off his cracker.

You defense lawyers stick to law, not medicene, you don't have degrees in mental illness medicene, etc.

[redmerlot]

He brilliantly planned it, secretly. He booby-trapped his home. He has therefore demonstrated that he knew what he was doing was wrong. That does it for me. I don't care if he's crazy as a loon. He's made a clear choice to kill when he knew killing is wrong. And he has not denied that he committed the murders. Case should be over already.

[matt6052]

Let's hope the prosecution will spare the victims of a torturous trial and accept a plea of innocent by reason of insanity.

[ZenMed]

This psycho has personally made sure none of the victims will ever be spared from the suffering that he has inflicted. "accepting a plea of innocent by reason of insanity" aka sh** for brains and good for nothing.

[mccgeno]

Of coarse he's mentally ill. Only someone who's crazy would murder 12 innocent people. Luckily, execution cures insanity.