Holmes made threat in March: Prosecutors

Colo. prosecutors say suspected gunman James Holmes made threats of violence months before the movie theater shooting in Aurora.

(CBS/AP) DENVER - Newly filed court records allege that the man accused of opening fire on a Colorado movie theater in July told a classmate he wanted to kill people four months before the shooting.

Prosecutors made the contention in a motion released Friday. They are seeking access to James Holmes' records from the University of Colorado Denver's neuroscience graduate program.

Prosecutors wrote that Holmes left the program in June after also making unspecified threats to a professor that month and failing his year-end final.

Prosecutors: Holmes was banned from university after threats
Colo. shooting suspect James Holmes' lawyers: He's mentally ill

Holmes' attorneys argue that prosecutors should have no access to his student records. The papers they filed in response to prosecutors do not address the allegations of threats.

Holmes is charged with killing 12 and wounding 58 during the July 20 attack on a midnight showing of "The Dark Knight Rises" in Aurora, Colorado.

Holmes' defense lawyer, Daniel King, has said Holmes is mentally ill, setting up a possible insanity defense.

Watch a CBS "This Morning" report about a potential motive in the Colo. shooting case

CBS News correspondent Rick Sallinger reported earlier this week that Holmes had seen three mental health professionals at the university before the shooting. The only one whose name has been publicly disclosed, Dr. Lynne Fenton, is subpoenaed to appear in court for the case. At issue is a package mailed by Holmes to her and recovered in the campus mail room three days after the shooting -- a notebook with information Holmes defense lawyers argue is privileged and shouldn't be released to the public.

Arguments at a hearing Thursday by Chief Deputy District Attorney Karen Pearson revealed a possible motive: Holmes' anger that he was failing at school, "at the same time he's buying an enormous amount of ammunition, body armor and explosives."

A gag order has been issued in the case. Prosecutors argued that gaining access to the school records would establish a motive by showing what Holmes hoped to accomplish at Colorado University and the "dissatisfaction with what occurred in his life that led to this."

They also want to see records from campus police and a campus threat evaluation team similar to those established across the country after the 2007 Virginia Tech University shootings.

19 Photos

The Colorado massacre suspect

[hypnotoad72]

But in seriousness, find out what drove him over the edge.

Whatever punishment is fair is fine by me.

We can either move forward as a society, and pretend to while we continue to shed more tears over issues that need not have happened because we chose to do proper, pro-life things instead of making an empty show and continuing the same things that drive people to what they do.

Let's dig in, find out what makes this creep tick, and move forward.

And, no, I am not against the death penalty for cases like this.

Unlike all of those in the theater who may have concealed guns and chose not to use them (Colorado is a conceal/carry state and not all Batman followers are the sort of wimpy libruls some might claim them to be...)

[hypnotoad72]

Maybe he should have gone to a school that hands out all "A" grades so they don't lose federal funding as a result... particularly a for-profit college...

[dustin93sc]

James Holmes represents a radical ecology movement founded by anarchists who devoted to environmental perfection. They resort to mass murder as a statement for nature. The FBI portrays James as a lone wolf to disguise his value to the Abu Dhabi oil cartel.

[UForgotPoland]

You're a retard.

[hypnotoad72]

UForgotPoland -

Anyone posting here instead of making a big corporation more profitable at our expense is a retard...

Hmmm, that covers just about all of us, doesn't it?

[credibility2]

...that this guy told others what he wanted to do and no one wanted to report him, no doubt for fear of offending him, is disgusting...liberalism and PC rubbish...

[hypnotoad72]

I'm a liberal and you can shove your comments where the sun don't shine.

How's that for a liberal not being PC? Especially as your post does nothing but blanketly blame a group of people for all of society's problems... so, here's a question, are you related to Adolf Hitler? He, and I use that word loosely and not because of the obvious reason, scapegoated and blamed society's ills on groups of people as well...

If you read this far, thank you. Maybe you realized a thing or two by now...

[rwsmith29456]

This guy isn't crazy. He's acting crazy to save his own behind after killing all of those innocent people.

[hypnotoad72]

So what are your credentials as psychiatrist?

Or, forget that, have you talked to the guy face-to-face and figured out he's not?