James Holmes' Mother: 'I Still Love My Son'
CENTENNIAL, Colo. (CBS4) - The mother of the Aurora theater gunman says she didn't realize her son's silence turned out to be his "cry for help."
CBS4's Rick Sallinger listened to Arlene Holmes as she took to the witness stand. He says like the victims, the parents of the gunman have lost their son in a way and now they are trying to keep him alive by telling of his life.
Arlene Holmes called the birth of her son James a miracle, but now his life has become a nightmare.
"I understand he has a serious mental illness that … he didn't ask for that. Schizophrenia chose him, he didn't choose it," she said.
She noted her son broke up with his girlfriend and was having trouble in school in the months before the shooting.
"I didn't realize that his loudest cry for help was his silence," Arlene Holmes said.
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She told of a phone call she received from the University of Colorado not long before the shooting. It was psychiatrist Dr. Lynne Fenton telling her James dropped out of school but their conversation lacked some information.
"She never said he was thinking of killing people. She didn't tell me. She didn't tell me. She didn't tell me!" Arlene said while crying on the stand.
Once again home videos were played for the jury as the mother wondered how her wonderful child could turn into a mass killer.
"Were you in any way ever concerned that he would act violently?" a defense attorney asked?
"Never -- I was totally shocked he would use a gun, we never had guns in the house," Arlene Holmes said.
But he did and now faces the possible sentence of death.
"I still love my son," Arlene Holmes said.
The jury will come back Thursday at 11:30 a.m. That's when closing arguments take place in this phase of the trial. The jury will then decide if the mitigating factors to keep James Holmes outweigh the factors to put him to death.