Will James Holmes face death for killing 12 people inside an Aurora, Colorado, movie theater?
James Holmes, who walked into a midnight screening of The Dark Knight and opened fire on over 400 theater goers in 2012, killing 12 and wounding 70 has been found guilty of all 165 charges laid against him following the massacre, a Colorado jury said on Thursday night.
The 27-year-old who pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, with attorneys arguing he was mentally ill and not aware of his actions at the time of mass shooting now faces the death penalty or life in prison after his insanity defense was denied.
However the last person to be executed in the state was in 1997.
The jury panel, made up of 9 women and 3 men, handed down their decision in Arapahoe County District Court at 6.15pm after sitting trial for 11 weeks and then deliberating for about 12.5 hours.
Holmes was found guilty of 24 charges of first-degree murder – two for each victim who was killed, 140 counts of attempted murder, 2 counts for each person wounded and one charge of possession of an explosive device for a gas canister he let off in the cinema.
Dressed in a blue shirt and khaki pants, with his hair slicked down and wearing reading glasses, Holmes stood motionless with his hands in his pockets as the verdict on all 165 of his charges were read aloud by judge Carlos Samour Jr. over the course of about an hour.
The verdict announcement brought some level of comfort to the victims who were shot by Holmes, and the families of those that he killed – many of which witnessed the verdict being handed down.
Jansen Young was one person wounded in the attack, but her boyfriend, JonathanBlunk, 26, who threw himself in front of her, died. ‘It’s unreal,’ Young said outside court.
‘Someone attempted to murder me, in a movie theater, when I was just doing nothing.
‘Finally, this is coming to a close.’
Young added: ‘I didn’t know how I was going to feel. There was a weight lifted that I didn’t even know was there that I’ve been carrying for three years.’
Hansen remembered how Blunk, a father of two, protected her.
‘Jonathan was a true hero,’ she said.
‘He pushed me under the seats. He laid on his side and boxed me in and lost his life.’
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