Holmes charged with 142 counts
CENTENNIAL, Colo. – The hair was still bright orange, but it lay neatly combed into bangs. The demeanor was more focused, less wild-eyed than one week before.
Outwardly, it seemed to be a different James Eagan Holmes who appeared in court Monday to face 142 criminal counts, including 24 of first-degree murder, stemming from the mass shooting at a movie theater in nearby Aurora. This was a more composed figure, one who made eye contact with the judge and answered with a polite “Yes” to the one question he was asked.
To family members and friends of those who died or were wounded, those outward manifestations were far less important than their perceptions of the suspect’s inner self which they described by such terms as “evil,” “coldblooded” and “coward.”
In addition to the 140 counts of murder or attempted murder, Arapahoe County District Attorney Carol Chambers filed two other charges. One is an “enhancement” for the use of firearms, which would allow for consecutive sentences. The other is for illegal possession of an explosive or incendiary device. The maximum penalty for a first-degree murder conviction is death. It is not known yet whether prosecutors will seek the death penalty.
The complaint charges Holmes twice for each of the 12 people killed and 58 people injured in the shooting. One set of charges accused him of acting with “deliberation” and “intent.” The other accused him of carrying out the crimes with “universal malice” and “extreme indifference to the value of human life generally.”
The second set, charging him with indifference to life, may represent “a fallback theory” in case prosecutors fail to prove intent, according to Marianne Wesson, a professor at the University of Colorado Law School and an expert in criminal law.
“That is because prosecutors in jury trials sometimes find it difficult to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the actor had the capacity to deliberate in a rational way,” she said in an interview. There has been speculation that Holmes, 24, who had been under psychiatric care, will mount an insanity defense. Because of a gag order in the case, neither prosecutors nor defense lawyers were allowed to publicly discuss the charges or their strategy. Judge William B. Sylvester also banned cameras from the courtroom, making the hearing less of a public spectacle than Holmes’ initial court appearance the previous week.
Sylvester set Nov. 13 for a preliminary hearing in the July 20 shooting.