Colorado Theater Shooting: James Holmes in Court to Hear Charges
For the first time, James Holmes will hear the charges against him.
July 30, 2012— -- Accused mass murderer James Holmes will face a judge later this morning to hear the charges against him in the massacre at an Aurora, Colo., movie theater.
Holmes is expected to face 12 counts of murder in the first degree and potentially hundreds of other counts including attempted murder and assault.
Holmes, 24, is accused of going on a shooting spree in the theater during a midnight showing of "The Dark Knight Rises" on July 20. Twelve people were killed and 58 wounded in the worst mass shooting in modern US history.
"There's probably charges that can be brought [on behalf] of anybody who was present. The state will need to decide how they approach all of those charges," said former public defender David Kaplan, former head of the Colorado public defender's office.
This will be the second time Holmes has appeared in court. His first appearance in court on July 23 raised questions among some observers about his mental competency. The suspected shooter appeared dazed with his head drooping at times.
The judge will also hear arguments today about a package Holmes mailed to his psychiatrist at the University of Colorado, Lynne Fenton. Holmes' attorneys filed a motion Friday demanding that the court "immediately produce all discovery pertaining to the seizure of the package."
Holmes' attorneys claim that seizing the package was a breach of confidentiality and they accuse the government of leaking the existence of the package to the media.
"The government's disclosure of this confidential and privileged information has placed Mr. Holmes' constitutional rights to due process and a fair trial by an impartial jury in serious jeopardy," his attorneys wrote.
Holmes' attorneys say the package is confidential communication between patient and doctor.
Fenton never received the package, but legal experts say that if Holmes ever made specific threats in their meetings, Fenton had an obligation to report them.
"It's called duty to warn or duty to protect," threat assessment psychologist Marisa Randazzo said.
When investigators first found the package on July 23 in the mailroom at the University of Colorado, where Holmes recently dropped out as a neuroscience student, they were so concerned that it -- like Holmes' apartment -- would be rigged with explosives, they sent in a robot to handle it.
Investigators are analyzing a notebook believed to be written by Holmes that could be a roadmap to a massacre.
Inside the notebook they reportedly found plans for a massacre, including drawings of a stick-figure gunman mowing down his victims.
The Arapahoe County District Attorney's office, representing the state, filed an objection to the motion and asked that it be denied. The DA said that the motion by Holmes's attorneys was "based on certain factual assumptions that are not established by evidence and that the People believe are of dubious validity, if not outright incorrect."