After his arrest, Holmes reportedly told authorities that he had rigged his apartment with the explosive devices. He had booby-trapped his home so that anyone who entered would be hurt or killed.
The police were able to eliminate and remove the dangerous materials. Prior to this incident, Holmes did not have a criminal record. Holmes had mailed Fenton, the campus clinic psychiatrist, a notebook about his mental illness and homicidal thoughts hours before the shootings, but it wasn't discovered until days after the tragedy.
Following his arrest, Holmes was held in solitary confinement at the Arapahoe Detention Center. In prison, Holmes experienced psychotic episodes and was hospitalized after allegedly attempting suicide by running headfirst into a wall. Holmes made his first court appearance on July 23, Seven days later, he was charged with 24 counts of first-degree murder and counts of attempted murder, as well as two charges related to the possession of serious weapons.
On September 19, the prosecution filed a motion to add new charges against Holmes. In March , Holmes made an offer to plead guilty to the charges in exchange for life in prison without the possibility of parole. This move would have allowed Holmes to avoid the death penalty.
But the prosecutors rejected his offer, choosing instead to move forward with the case against Holmes. The Arapahoe Country District Attorney George Brauchler was unwilling to accept a life sentence for Holmes, believing that the accused deserved a more severe punishment for his alleged crimes.
On May 31, , Holmes' attorneys changed his plea to not guilty by reason of insanity. Although his trial was scheduled to begin in October , it was delayed when his lawyers asked for a continuance. Jury selection began in January and lasted for three months. The trial began on April 27, The Holmeses also support a push for earlier identification of mental issues by school teachers, counselors and administrators. The Holmeses blame themselves for what happened in Aurora that night. They believe they should have known more about mental illness.
If you're going to have a baby, you need to understand mental health. And you need to start looking for things and making sure that your kid has no mental health issues…That's the message. Weaver says he has forgiven the gunman, even though he does not know if other victims feel the same way. Emails involving the case were encrypted, and some documents were delivered to Reid in person, instead of by mail or parcel service.
The book knocks down a half-dozen stories that circulated around the case. Reid Meloy, a forensic psychologist and a clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of California San Diego, agreed that Reid did not have a doctor-patient relationship with Holmes.
Holmes pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, but Reid and the other court-appointed psychiatrist, Jeffrey L. Reid and Metzner both said Holmes was mentally ill at the time of the killings — Metzner diagnosed schizoaffective disorder, a severe form of schizophrenia, and Reid found schizotypal personality, a related but less severe disorder.
But both said that despite his illness, Holmes knew his elaborately planned ambush was illegal and morally wrong, and that he could still form criminal intent, all of which meant he was sane under state law. The book ends with a plea to make mental health a part of everyday health care rather than focusing only on crisis intervention. You want to know what is really going on these days, especially in Colorado. We can help you keep up. The Lookout is a free, daily email newsletter with news and happenings from all over Colorado.
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