Alleged Colorado movie shooter James Egan Holmes apparently showed a number of worrisome signs many months prior to the Aurora movie theatre shootout, which claimed the life of 12 and injured 59 others.
According to prosecutor Karen Pearson 24-year-old Holmes told a classmate that he planned on killing people "when his life was over." Also Pearson said that the Ph.D dropout sought help from three mental-health professionals at the University of Colorado prior to the Aurora movie theater massacre.
The alleged evidence raises obvious questions about how much the University knew about Holmes and his concerning behavior. It raises questions whether the University failed to take the necessary measures to deal with Holmes.
Prosecutor Pearson sought out for the court to release a gag order so that prosecutors could gain access to the 24-year-old's university records including academic, but excluding medical.
On Thursdays, prosecutors in the case against alleged Colorado movie massacre, James Egan Holmes, told the judge that the 24-year-old college dropout made violent threats, including one to a university professor, prior to the shoot-out at the Aurora movie house.
Prosecutor Karen Pearson told the court, "Making threats and those threats were reported to police," she added that as a result he was barred from the university.
However, university officials deny that Holmes was barred from the campus.
Prosecutors are arguing that Holmes' deteriorating grades and growing unhappiness as a student might reveal insight into the motive behind the massacre. Pearson argues that the release of school records, including transcripts, but not medical reports are "All of this is relevant to his decision to withdraw from school, booby-trap his apartment and buy ammunition...What's going on in the defendant's life at the time is extremely relevant to this case," as reported by the Huffington Post. Pearson was insinuating that Holmes was becoming increasing disgruntled with the school, which likely caused him to snap.
Defense, Daniel King, was insinuating a possible plea for insanity. King also objected to prosecutors bid for a gag order to get access to Holmes records. "They are fishing around to establish a motive. ... The motive is irrelevant...Nothing in those documents will reveal any intent," as reported by the Christian Monitor
Holmes is being charged with 12 counts of murder and 116 of attempted murder.
A few weeks ago the University of Colorado Psychiatrist Dr. Lynne Fenton said that she informed a police about the 24-year-old expressing concern that her patient showed signs of imminent violence only seem to bolster the defense's evidence for a possible plea for insanity.
Holmes has not entered a plea yet, however it would come as no surprise if he doesn't plead mental incompetency.
According to Dr. Fenton, she has expressed concern over Holmes to the university's Behavior Evaluation and Threat Assessment department in June; however since he soon dropped out of the program and the college could no longer take any action.
On July 20, at a midnight screening of the cult-inducing Dark Knight Rises film at a movie house in Aurora, Colorado, Holmes, opened fire killing 12 people and injuring 59 others. He was arrested that morning and placed in a detention facility of Arapahoe County in solitary confinement.
Eighteenth Judicial District Attorney Carol Chambers told News Day that she is considering pursuing the death penalty, but only after consulting with the victims and their families.
Although, there are no developments as to the motives of the shootings, police said that Holmes had purchased the assault rifles with which he carried on the killing the day he failed an exam hinting to an "underlying mental illness that was triggered by the stress of failure," according to reports by ABC News. But Holmes had starting accumulating ammunition and other arms a month prior to the killing.
In addition, police recovered a journal that the Ph.D. drop-out sent the university physiatrist cautioning on the upcoming fatal event he planned. Unfortunately, the journal remained in an unchecked mail-box and was discovered only until it was too late.
Holmes sent a journal, which was "full of details about how he was going to kill people," according to Fox News to the University of Colorado Anschutz medical campus in Aurora psychiatrist. However it was not discovered until too late.
Police found his apartment to be inundated with ammunition in addition to being booby-trapped. Police required a bomb-squad to disarm his apartment; residents were evacuated for over a week before they could return back to their homes. The apartment of the alleged shooter revealed that he had been preparing for the shooting months in advance and had accumulated a number of weapons, ammunitions and explosives over a period of time.
He is currently being kept in detention facility. He has yet to enter a plea, but there is a growing possibility that his lawyers might file for the temporary insanity or mental incompetency.
