Jurors of the Colorado movie shooting trial have finally reached a verdict today.
July 20, 2012 James Holmes shot and killed 12 people and wounded 70 other people at a Denver Colorado movie theater which at the time was premiering “The Dark Knight Rises”. After 3 years of trial the verdict came out to be guilty of murder in the 1st degree. It’s possible for the 27 year old former neuroscience student to get the death penalty for the 12 lives that he took three years ago today. After two days and 13 hours of deliberating they reached their verdict but have yet still to decide whether or not Holmes should be executed or sent to prison for the remainder of his life with no chance of parole. He pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity and his attorneys added that he was mentally ill and unstable during the time of the shooting.
His victims included two active-duty servicemen, a single mom, a man celebrating his 27th birthday and an aspiring broadcaster who had survived a mall shooting in Toronto. Several died shielding friends or loved ones.
During the trial, prosecutors called on 200+ witnesses with at least 70 of them being survivors of Homes’ attack. Some of the survivors showed long-term physical damage with missing limbs and wheel-chair bounds.
The youngest to die was a 6-year-old girl whose mother also suffered a miscarriage and was paralyzed in the attack. Another woman who was nine months pregnant at the time described her agonizing decision to leave her wounded husband behind in the theater to save their baby. She later gave birth in the same hospital where he was in a coma. He can no longer walk and has trouble talking.
Prosecutors said the attack was consciously thought out and was planned for months ahead and that Holmes knew what he was doing from the beginning. Holmes did not show any type of reaction while the judge was reading the verdict. The families of those who were killed the day of the shooting arrived around 3pm to hear the verdict with deputies all around including on the roof. You can hear the judge read of the jury’s verdict in the video below.
