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Rj Sangosti / Pool via Reuters file
Colorado shooting suspect James Eagan Holmes makes his first court appearance in Aurora, Colo. on July 23, 2012.
James Holmes, the alleged shooter in the July 12 Aurora theater rampage, told a classmate in March that he wanted to kill people, according to court documents released by the court on Friday.
The newly unsealed document, filed on Aug. 14 by District Attorney Carol Chambers, states that evidence gathered so far indicates that "the defendant had conversations with a classmate about wanting to kill people in March, 2012, and that he would do so when his life was over."
Holmes, a former graduate student in neurology at the University of Colorado, is charged with 142 criminal counts, including 24 counts of first-degree murder, in the attack at a midnight premiere of the Batman movie "The Dark Knight Rises" and possession of explosives. After arresting Holmes, police found his apartment was booby-trapped with a jumble of explosives and incendiary devices set to be triggered by trip wires. It took experts several days to disarm the devices.
Twelve people were killed and 58 others were injured in the rampage.
The document unsealed Friday argues that Holmes' school records, which are generally protected by the Family Educational Records Privacy Act, should be turned over because they "are relevant to the investigation of these crimes, his planning and motive."
The document begins to construct a possible motive by citing existing evidence — that Holmes failed his graduate school oral boards in June and made threats to a professor at the school, and that after he was denied access to the university's Denver-Anschutz campus "he began a detailed and complex plan to obtain firearms" and other equipment deployed in the theater rampage.
Earlier the defense filed a motion to prevent opening the educational records, arguing that confidentiality should be maintained because "the prosecution is seeking these materials as a mere fishing expedition and not for any proper purpose."
At hearings earlier this month, Holmes defense team made repeated references to their client’s mental illness, signaling that they are likely to pursue a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity.
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This is just more proof that this guy is not insane and that this was a well thought out, premeditated attack for the purpose of revenge. He failed his graduate boards an was bounced out of school. He as pissed off and looking for revenge but could not get back on campus. So instead he did the next best thing in his mind and terrorize the town around the university by attacking the movie theater. This is not the actions of someone who is insane, this is the actions of an angry, frustrated loser who wanted to take out his anger on as many people as possible, even though they had nothing to do with his failures.The only thing this deserves is a needle to end his life they he ended the lives those 12 innocent people in the theater.
I agree with JS in SD. Holmes knows how to ACT psychotic from all of his lessons in college. I want to point out to everyone how he puts on an act. I also want to point out that a person needs to only read the eyes of person to know what is truth. Cover his lips and nose and cheekbones and look at one eye at a time...I see fear in his eyes of what is going to happen, I see anger at himself, I see in his eyes that he hopes to get away with insanity by using that smile of his. You know that he wants a padded room by the way that he self inflicts upon himself when he never had before. True insanity is when a person doesn't know that what he or she did was wrong due to a not being aware of what he or she did as in a another person or with infantile (not mature minded, having the mentality of a child). Holmes is trying to look like a person who is schizophrenic and having PTSD to the extreme of being a multiple personality. He is only 1 personality and thus cannot be a multiple case. Please realize that he is playing.
That dude with the red hair is NOT the same guy who was arrested for the crime!!! Wake up, people!
http://www.google.com/imgres?q=aurora+shooter+conspiracy&hl=en&sa=X&biw=1333&bih=635&tbm=isch&prmd=imvns&tbnid=RymOXZKH-w-h_M:&imgrefurl=http://americankabuki.blogspot
your website you posted is gone, not found. I wonder what happened to it? hmm. Someone didn't like the information on that page.
celtchick50, could you explain please?
Whether Holmes is sane or not is really a non issue... unless they are looking for avenues to file civil suit against those who should have intervened. Holmes needs locked away for about 12 life times. The only question should be whether his solitary cell has padding or not.
I fail to understand why he, Loughner, or any other of the like are considered "SUSPECTS". There is no suspicion of them doing the crime... They DID the crime and their actions are provable without reasonable doubt. And don't give me any BS about "guilty until proven innocent". They are guilty by both admittance and witnesses, therefore they are NOT suspects.
There are much better words for such people: "perpetrator", "slayer", "slaughterer", "murderer", or even "killer".
So, NBC..tell us about the guy who shot up the Family Research Council offices. You know, the militantly pro-gay shooter.
It's the guys who shoot for political reasons that scare me the most regardless of their affiliations left or right.
I'll be waiting patiently for the anti-2nd Amendment, pro-1984, Big Brother, nanny state, "mind my business for me", don't let me hurt myself for cryin' out loud crowd to show up.
Proceed with countdown:
5.....4.....3.....2.....
since you are ZeroPartsLogicTotalBS we will spare you the logic
@Greg_S:
Thank you, kind sir.
The compassion you show in sparing me is greatly appreciated.
Sorry. I don't know what came over me.
After all, that kind of precedent has never been associated with these kinds of posts.
Completely illogical assertion on my part.
*hangs head*
*shakes head softly*
*slowly plods off into the distance*
Insanity is a legal term not a diagnosis. It is possible to premeditate and still be nutty as a fruitecake, especially if you're responding to illusions or even hallucinations because you can't tell them from reality. His I.Q. is probably still in tact but the low school performance can be due to the fact that his attention is way way elsewhere. Lets face it. No body does something like this for the fun of living in a mental institution or prison hospital for the rest of his life.
The University felt threatened enough to want him out of there but was that the extent of their responsibility? It looks like they had good reason to at least notify the police. We'll see what happens.
Thank you for taking the time to explain that; yes, "insanity" is never used as a diagnosis. What I am wondering is if and when he had a psychotic break. I am also curious if he exhibited symptoms earlier in life. Sometimes people who go on to develop mental illness, i.e., schizophrenia, bi-polar, etc., show signs of problems that cannot be directly deemed a symptom of a mental illness. It's almost as the signs are warning signs that something is amiss and people may just think the person is a "bit odd" or "bit unusual."
That's the dilemma. You can't have someone arrested or committed for being unusual. Yeah there were lots of warning signs.
Once again the warning signs were given to the authorities and they failed to act and protect the people.
When moments count, the police are only minutes away.
Arm yourself for your own protection.
Holmes didn't need a 'detailed and complex plan' to obtain firearms in this country---just the necessary cash. He also didn't have a meaningful background check---a check that might have denied him weapons if it revealed that he had made threats to kill others.
Two words: public execution
I agree with liberal.
Depressing...I am about ready to stop watching/reading the US news these days. So much that one could attempt to accomplish in life...and all these folks give up and end it all. Ok, this guy failed at something...he could have tried to be successful at something else that he liked. I honestly don't understand US people these days.
I hope this kid wins MILLIONS upon MILLIONS and then I hope each of the accusers do exactly the same thing, separately. Then the other molested children need to go after the Pope and the Catholic Church.
This is the conspiracy documentary film, I watched today about James Holmes. I suggested this documentary film for those who didn't watch yet.
whats up with people and conspiracy....do you people honestly think someone isnt capeable of doing somthing like this? come on!!! How many people who were in the theatre that night changed their stories multiple times. Did it occur to any of you that the stress,anxiety,terror they were in made them not fully aware of what they saw or didnt see? there was smoke,it was a dark movie theatre too,there were bullets flying they were ducking down and crawling around these people didnt know what was going on!!