14 Dead, 50 Hurt In Mass Shooting Inside Aurora Movie Theater

[Sdiver]

Defense attorney's for Holmes state he is mentally ill and will plead insanity.

Knew this was going to happen, but they're going to have a hard time proving it.

But Hinkley got off for shooting Reagan, so they just might get it with this kid.

Attorneys: Theater Shooting Suspect Is Mentally Ill

CENTENNIAL, Colo. -- Attorneys for accused movie theater shooter James Holmes mentioned three times during a Thursday afternoon court hearing that he is mentally ill.

They mentioned the issue once when the defense argued it had not received all the evidence in the case.

"We cannot begin to assess the depth of Holme's mental illness until we receive all evidence," the defense said.


Defense attorneys said they had 2,677 pages of discovery, which includes reports from crime scene officers but they had no photos and no video from the district attorney's office.

The second mention of mental illness was during an argument about unsealing documents requested by the media.

The defense said Holmes sought help from Dr. Fenton for mental illness and it caused problems when there was a motion about obtaining information about a package Holmes had sent to Fenton.

The defense also argued that if the court releases the Registry of Action, or synopsis of the minutes or notes of the hearings, the titles of certain hearings could reveal more about his mental illness.

Victim Stares At Holmes In Court

The suspect, James Holmes, 24, was at the hearing. Holmes didn't say anything or do anything of note, according to Marshall Zelinger, who was in the courtroom.

There were several victims in the courtroom.
Pierce O'Farrill, whose arm was in a sling, took in the entire proceeding.
Shane Medek, Micayla Medek's brother, stared at Holmes during the entire 80-minute hearing and on occasion learned forward aggressively toward Holmes. Micayla Medek was one of the 12 who was shot and killed.

News Organizations Seeking Court Documents

At the hearing, news media organizations went before a judge to seek access to court documents in the Colorado theater shooting case.

The news organizations are also asking the judge to scale back a sweeping gag order that bars the University of Colorado from releasing details about the alleged shooter, James Holmes. Holmes is a former student.

Holmes is charged with multiple counts of first-degree murder and attempted first-degree murder in the shooting during a midnight showing of the latest Batman movie.

The July 20 shooting left 12 people dead and injured 58 others at the Century 16 movie theater in Aurora.

Steven Zansberg is the Denver lawyer representing the news organizations, including 7NEWS.

He told Colorado Public Radio's "Colorado Matters," the court should have the burden of proving releasing court documents would cause harm to the police investigation.

Zansberg said releasing court documents allows the public to see justice is being done and observe the process.

"Public scrutiny tends to make everyone involved in the process pay attention and act honestly," he told the station.

Former prosecutor and adjunct professor of law at the University of Denver, Karen Steinhauser told the station unsealing documents during an active investigation could harm prosecutors' ability to build a case against Holmes.
Steinhauser said as prosecutors continue to interview witnesses, it will become increasingly difficult to prove that the statements given are the witnesses' own knowledge versus something they may have heard in the media.

"People then, they are still in the process of trying to interview; would learn of some detail and some information, it might be difficult then to try to show that this witness was giving the information based on what they knew versus what they learned from reading [news reports]," Steinhauser told CPR.
She added opening the court file could taint the jury pool against Holmes.
Zansberg said prosecutors don't need to find a jury that's ignorant of the shooting.

"I'm not sure we could find 12 such people in Colorado," he said.
Prosecutors need only find 12 jurors who will uphold their oath to decide guilt or innocence based off the evidence that is presented in court, Zansberg said.

http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news...04/detail.html

[Hand]

Just saw a follow up to this story this morning along with some drivel about banning assault weapons. What caught my eye was a graphic of someone using a plastic .223 round to press the magazine release on an AR. Underneath that it said the following

A plastic replica of a bullet is used to quickly remove a ammunition magazine from an assault rifle in a demonstration at the California Department of Justice in Sacramento, Calif., Aug. 15. Current law requires some type of tool, even something like a bullet, be used when reloading. State Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, is proposing to change California law to make it more difficult and time-consuming to reload.

So off I go to Google this 'existing law' that Ive never heard mention of before. I found page after page after page after page of stories saying the EXACT same thing

http://www.google.com/search?q=law+r...w=1306&bih=788

Is there REALLY a law that says you need a tool to reload a firearm? If so, I'm doing it wrong.

[Badger52]

Originally Posted by Hand

Just saw a follow up to this story this morning along with some drivel about banning assault weapons. What caught my eye was a graphic of someone using a plastic .223 round to press the magazine release on an AR. Underneath that it said the following



So off I go to Google this 'existing law' that Ive never heard mention of before. I found page after page after page after page of stories saying the EXACT same thing

http://www.google.com/search?q=law+r...w=1306&bih=788

Is there REALLY a law that says you need a tool to reload a firearm? If so, I'm doing it wrong.

California has their own unique version of everything, including an Assault Weapons Law, which was modified awhile back to codify the requirement that it is neceesary to use a tool to remove a magazine for reloading, otherwise it's classed as an AW. Try googling instead "bullet button" and you'll also get the knee-jerk responses (called knee-JERK for a reason) to close what the panty-waisted tyrants see as a loophole. (Loophole: n. when someone is smarter than the tyrant & gets good at a legal workaround for something stupid.)

Edit: I need a pukin' smiley after typing that.

[Hand]

Thank you Badger52 - I'm struggling to wrap my mind around this. So in CA, now, if you dont need a tool to reload, you actually have an AW? Sweet! Now I have 3 class III firearms and I didnt even need to go through the process

[Badger52]

Originally Posted by Hand

Thank you Badger52 - I'm struggling to wrap my mind around this. So in CA, now, if you dont need a tool to reload, you actually have an AW? Sweet! Now I have 3 class III firearms and I didnt even need to go through the process

Don't bother wrapping your mind around CA - other people need the Tylenol. I left in '69, proof that a HS civics teacher who emphasized critical thinking did his job.

Now go let them munch on some ammo.

[Richard]

The answer to the LEOs caution in seeking access to Holmes' apartment.

Richard

Updates from hearing: Holmes said to have rigged home with explosives to distract police

A federal agent testified Tuesday (8 Jan 2013) that James Holmes, who is charged in the Aurora, Colo., theater massacre, had booby-trapped his apartment and intended it to serve as a distraction while he went on his shooting rampage.

FBI bomb tech Garrett Gumbinner testified that Holmes used improvised napalm, homemade thermite, gasoline, smokeless gun powder, rifle bullets and a host of wiring and electronics to rig more than a dozen explosives and incendiary devices.

Holmes told the agent that he hoped to draw his neighbors and police to the elaborate system by setting up music to be played loudly from his home computer or a boom box he placed near a dumpster outside his apartment.

Above the boom box was a remote-controlled toy car and what looked like a remote control, but was in actuality a controller used in fireworks shows. It would have set off the explosives inside the apartment.

Meanwhile, fishing line tied to the apartment door would also have set off the explosives.

The testimony came during the second day of a preliminary hearing to determine if Holmes should stand trial for the shooting deaths of 12 people and for charges that he wounded numerous other people in the attack.

[mark46th]

Criminals should first be tried for their offense(s). If they are found guilty, they should be sentenced according to the law, then a determination should be made as to their sanity...

[Barbarian]

Defense attorney's for Holmes state he is mentally ill and will plead insanity.

When a mad dog hurts someone, it gets put down.....

[echoes]

Originally Posted by Barbarian

When a mad dog hurts someone, it gets put down.....

Very well said!!!

Am thinking about 20 years ago, and further, when we did not have 24 hour news-I-Sh*t, Instant whatever....these things still happened I think, but were not reported/commented on in public. I woulod say, "how sad", but it is the times we live in...

JMHO,

Holly

[SF18C]

So wait, the cops were told by his psychiatrist this dirt bag was batshit crazy and homicidal before hand?

http://news.msn.com/crime-justice/ho...-before-attack

A psychiatrist who treated James Holmes told campus police a month before the Colorado theater attack that Holmes had homicidal thoughts and was a danger to the public, according to documents released Thursday.

Dr. Lynne Fenton, a psychiatrist at the University of Colorado, Denver, told police in June that the shooting suspect also threatened and intimidated her. It was more than a month before the July 20 attack at a movie theater that killed 12 and injured 70.

In the days after the attack, campus police said they had never had contact with Holmes, who was a graduate student at the university.

But campus police Officer Lynn Whitten told investigators after the shooting that Fenton had contacted her. Whitten said Fenton was following her legal requirement to report threats to authorities, according to a search warrant affidavit.

"Dr. Fenton advised that through her contact with James Holmes she was reporting, per her requirement, his danger to the public due to homicidal statements he had made," the affidavit said.

Whitten added that Fenton said she began to receive threatening text messages from Holmes after he stopped seeing her for counseling, the documents said.

Hmmm so if the Campus Police did something to PROTECT the citizenry we might not be having this discussion!

It just goes to show that the police can't/won't protect us!

I wonder how this small tidbit of information would have swayed the recent Colorado gun control discussion.

[fng13]

Originally Posted by SF18C

So wait, the cops were told by his psychiatrist this dirt bag was batshit crazy and homicidal before hand?

http://news.msn.com/crime-justice/ho...-before-attack



Hmmm so if the Campus Police did something to PROTECT the citizenry we might not be having this discussion!

It just goes to show that the police can't/won't protect us!

I wonder how this small tidbit of information would have swayed the recent Colorado gun control discussion.

I foresee a large lawsuit against the campus police department for that little tid-bit.

In their defense I'm sure that elsewhere on campus there was underage drinking and what would now be legal marijuana smoking going on.

And the never ending amount of parking tickets that university cops love to give out.