VERONICA MOSER-SULLIVAN - 6 yo (7/2012)/ Charged: James Holmes - Aurora CO

Ashley Moser, Mother Of 6-Year-Old Shooting Victim Veronica Moser, Will be Paralyzed, Aunt Says

CENTENNIAL, Colo. -- The Colorado woman who lost her 6-year-old daughter in the Aurora theater shooting and suffered a miscarriage is expected to be paralyzed as a result of her injuries, a family member said Monday.

MaryEllen Hansen said that doctors still hope her niece, Ashley Moser, will have use of her arms.

Moser's daughter, Veronica Moser-Sullivan, was the youngest person slain in the July 20 shooting. On Saturday, Moser's family announced that Moser had suffered a miscarriage related to the trauma of the shooting. Moser suffered gunshot wounds to the neck and abdomen.

Hansen said Monday that Moser was aware of both her daughter's death and the miscarriage. She added that a funeral for Veronica has been delayed until her mother is able to attend, and that there's no estimate on when that will be.

James Holmes, 24, was charged Monday with multiple murder and attempted murder counts in the case.

Hansen spoke at the courthouse where Holmes was charged with 142 criminal counts.

After the hearing, she said she thought Holmes appeared coherent and alert and that he had a "persona of evilness."

Holmes was not charged in connection with the miscarriage. Karen Steinhauser, a former prosecutor who is an adjunct professor at the University of Denver, told The Associated Press on Sunday homicide charges in Colorado only apply to those "who had been born and alive."

"Legally, it doesn't fit the definition" in this case, she said.

Moser's miscarriage could rekindle a debate about whether to allow prosecutors to charge people with killing a pregnant woman's fetus.

Last year, El Paso County Rep. Mark Waller proposed a bill to create new felony charges, such as unlawful termination of a pregnancy, in the first, second and third degrees. A fourth-degree charge would be a misdemeanor. The bill also would have created an offense for vehicular unlawful termination of a pregnancy.

Waller's proposal stated that it didn't "confer the status of `person'" to an unborn child. It also included language saying people wouldn't be charged in cases where a mother consents to medical care.

The Republican lawmaker said pressure from both sides of the abortion debate forced him to abandon the proposal, though he insisted the bill was about adequately prosecuting cases.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/30/ashley-moser-mom-of-young_n_1720320.html#slide=1257853

Double tragedy: Aurora shooting victim learns her daughter was killed

By Kate Snow, NBC News


When Ashley Moser took her 6-year-old daughter to see the midnight showing of the latest Batman movie on Thursday, it was supposed to be a time to unwind after months of hardship.

Until recently, Moser and her only child, Veronica Moser-Sullivan, lived with Moser's father -- Veronica's grandfather -- David Moser. They were a tight-knit family. But eight weeks ago, David Moser, 65, died after a 10-month battle with leukemia.

Moser's father’s death crushed her, said her aunt, Annie Dalton.

Dalton said her father’s illness also drained family resources; David Moser was penniless when he died, she said. Ashley Moser and her little girl then moved in with an uncle, where they were living when they headed out for the Cinemark movie theater in Aurora, Colo., a suburb of Denver.

At 25, Moser had not had an easy life, her aunt said.

"Ashley struggled a lot," Dalton said.

But Moser was getting her life in order, Dalton said. She had taken classes to enter a nursing program, her goal being to earn a degree as a licensed practical nurse – the kind of nurse who cares for the sick, injured or disabled. Moser had been accepted into a nursing program and was living off student loan money because she wasn’t employed, Dalton said.

Veronica, Dalton said, was a typical 6-year-old.

"She loved school, loved playing," she said. She had just started swimming lessons at a local recreation center, which she enjoyed. She was to start first grade in the fall.

But then came the early hours of Friday. Moser, a male friend and Veronica were in the theater, half an hour into The Dark Knight Rises, when a gunman entered and shot 71 people, killing 12.

On police radio calls someone is heard saying: "We have a child down and cannot evacuate."
The gunman killed Veronica; Moser caught a bullet to the neck. Dalton said she is paralyzed.

In the two days following the shooting, Moser drifted in and out of consciousness at the hospital. On Saturday, Moser’s mother, a chaplain and a doctor sat by her side and told her the devastating news: Her daughter had died in the shooting.

Moser was crushed.

Dalton said that despite her niece's extensive injuries, Moser's health appears to be improving. She is awake and talking now, Dalton said on Sunday.

For the family, this means more trauma, of course, but also mounting medical bills. Dalton said she believes that Moser is on Medicaid, but money will be tight with additional bills and Veronica’s funeral.



Courtesy Sullivan family via KUS
Veronica Moser Sullivan, 6, was killed by a gunman at the Century theater 16 in Aurora, Colo., shortly after midnight on Friday.


I thought I would repost one of first with her picture. It breaks my heart to look in to her eyes and realize that
a little angel like her is gone. I hope she gets the justice we scream for.
William

Victims remembered at weekend fundraisers

WESTMINSTER - Two separate fundraisers were held in Westminster Sunday for victims of the Aurora movie theater shooting.

Friends, family, and supporters of Ashley Moser showed up to Bar Louie for a silent and live auction to raise money.

Ashley is still recovering in the hospital.

Her family members told 9NEWS that Ashley will likely be paralyzed from the injuries she received. She lost her six-year-old daughter Veronica Moser-Sullivan in the shooting.

Ashley's family also explained that the extreme trauma she sustained also led to a miscarriage.

A seven day cruise was one of the auction items at tonight's event.

A family member said Ashley's recovery will be a long one.

"She's doing good," Kindele Morell, Ashley Moser's cousin, said. "She's getting stronger every day and I really feel all the love and support the community has given us is helping us heal from this experience. It's really been quite wonderful to be part of this family right now. We are a huge family and everyone has come together to support each other. It's really hard, but I think we have a lot of strength from all of this."

A website has been set up on Ashley's behalf. So far they have raised $10,000 to help Ashley with her medical bills.

The other event in Westminster on Sunday night was at a comedy club.

Comedians held a benefit show at Wits End Comedy Club for 23-year-old Caleb Medley.

Medley was also shot and is still recovering in the hospital.

His wife gave birth to their first child a few days after the shooting.

Medley was an up-and-coming comic who had just advanced in a well known comedy contest two days before the shooting.

A silent auction was held before the comedians took the stage.

Some big name comics were on hand, many of which have worked with Caleb.

"When someone is hurt or killed in this manner it's a lot hard to deal with than a person who had passed away from natural causes, so we need a little extra laughter, and all these people doing these benefits, wow, this is therapy, it's good for us but I think it's even better for all the people," David Testroet, the event organizer, said.

The event organizer says they will be presenting a check to Medley's family, including a $20,000 anonymous donation.

For more information on how you can help Caleb Medley and his family, you can visit this site: http://supportcaleb.com/

(KUSA-TV © 2012 Multimedia Holdings Corporation)

She Has A Name: Veronica Moser, 6 Year Old Killed In Aurora Shooting

Posted July 22, 2012 by Rachel Hislop for Global Grind Staff


Children love the movies, and so did 6-year-old Veronica Moser, but The Dark Knight Rises would be the last film she would ever see.

Veronica was one of the dozen people killed in Aurora Colorado when James Holmes opened fire on the midnight screening of the Batman movie.



Read more: http://globalgrind.com/news/James-holmes-dark-knight-shooting-victim-6-year-old-Veronica-Moser-photos-details-she-has-a-name#ixzz22m1UdKo7





Her mother, 25-year-old Ashley Moser, remains in critical condition after being shot in the neck and abdomen.

The family of the 6-year-old cutie is now speaking up to preserve the memory of their little angel that was taken too soon.


Veronica’s great-aunt Annie Dalton called her "vibrant" and shared the following details:

She loved to dress up and read and was doing well at school. She was beautiful and innocent," Dalton said of Veronica, who attended Holly Ridge Elementary School in Denver. "It's a nightmare right now."

Veronica's mother, Ashley Moser, remains in critical condition at Aurora Medical Center. The 25-year-old was shot in the neck, and doctors have been unable to remove the bullet. She also suffered a gunshot wound in the abdomen.

Moser passes in and out of consciousness, asking about her daughter, Dalton said, and does not yet know that Veronica died.

Moser, who was recently accepted to medical school, might recover with some use of her hands.

"They expect her to have some paralysis but don't know how extensive it will be," Dalton said.

Veronica was a comfort to her grandfather, who died two months ago after suffering from a terminal illness over the previous year.

"We were just rebuilding our family," Dalton said.

Our prayers are with the families who are suffering as a result of this senseless act of violence. May they find peace in the cheerful memories of their loved ones.


My heart goes out to her mother and family. I can't imagine the pain they have.
William

James Holmes court case: Aurora shooting suspect expected in court today in gag order case (VIDEO)



Posted: 7:01 AM
Last Updated: 2 hours and 33 minutes ago

Associated Press

CENTENNIAL, Colo. — News media organizations were set Thursday to ask the judge in the Colorado theater shooting case to unseal court documents and scale back a gag order that bars a university from releasing details about a former student who is the alleged gunman.

The Associated Press and 20 other news organizations want Chief District Judge William Sylvester to unseal documents that could provide the public with details about James Holmes and the massacre in Aurora on July 20.

The shooting during a midnight showing of the latest Batman movie left 12 people dead and injured 58 others. Holmes, a 24-year-old former Ph.D. student at the University of Colorado, is charged with multiple counts of first-degree murder and attempted first-degree murder.

Court officials said Holmes was expected to attend the hearing.

Arapahoe County prosecutors argue releasing documents could jeopardize their investigation. Holmes’ attorneys want to ensure he receives a fair trial.

Sylvester’s order sealing documents includes the case file, which makes it impossible for observers to understand prosecution and defense arguments on motions that are referenced by number only.

Sylvester on July 23 also issued a gag order that bars officials at the University of Colorado from responding to public records requests concerning Holmes.

The judge said doing so would jeopardize the county’s investigation. Aurora officials have cited the order in declining to speak about the city’s response to the shootings.

“It is performing our watchdog role to look at the process and try to assess for the public how the police have handled the case and assembled the evidence and assure for the defendant and the public that things are being conducted open and fairly,” said Gregory Moore, editor of The Denver Post. “It goes way beyond what’s necessary to protect the defendant’s right to a fair trial.”

Sylvester could make a decision Thursday or at a later time.

Arapahoe County District Attorney Carol Chambers, through a spokeswoman, declined comment ahead of the hearing, citing the gag order.

Holmes’ public defender, Daniel King, did not return a message left with the Colorado State Public Defender’s office.

Court documents, which include search warrants, inventories of evidence collected by police, and police interviews with witnesses, can be an important source of information for the public.

Little is known about how police say Holmes prepared for the shooting at a midnight showing of “The Dark Knight Rises,” or how they say he rigged his nearby apartment with explosives. Aurora Police Chief Daniel Oates has said the explosives were designed to kill anybody who entered Holmes’ apartment, including first-responders.

Steven D. Zansberg, an attorney representing the news media consortium, said the judge should at least explain which documents have been sealed and why.

In Colorado, this type of legal battle has been seen before.

In 2007, an Arapahoe County judge sealed an indictment in the case of a missing 6-year-old girl whom authorities determined had been dead for at least two years before her father, Aaron Thompson, reported her missing. The state Supreme Court ordered the indictment unsealed in 2008, allowing the public to learn the charges against Thompson. Thompson was convicted of fatal child abuse in 2009.

When Los Angeles Lakers player Kobe Bryant faced sexual assault charges in Vail in 2003, it took a media challenge to unseal an affidavit in which police laid out their case for an arrest. Bryant maintained his innocence, and prosecutors dropped the case in 2005.

A news media challenge led to last year’s release of an arrest affidavit in a sexual assault case involving former Denver Broncos cornerback Perrish Cox, who faced charges filed by Chambers’ office. Cox was acquitted in March.

Defense attorneys and prosecutors routinely ask judges to keep some documents sealed, often because the documents contain information a jury won’t hear at trial, said Denver criminal defense attorney Daniel Recht, who also argues First Amendment cases.

But Moore noted that some Colorado judges have sealed entire court dockets under the argument that the mere fact of media coverage will damage a case.

In his ruling to unseal documents in the Cox case, Douglas County District Judge Paul A. King rejected that notion.

“There can be no presumption that everyone in the jury panel will read, follow and find important the media accounts in this case,” King wrote.

Read more: http://www.wptv.com/dpp/news/national/james-holmes-court-case-aurora-shooting-suspect-expected-in-court-today-in-gag-order-case-video#ixzz2341Z2JlD

Prosecutors: Holmes banned from CU after threats

Posted on: 3:26 pm, August 23, 2012
updated on: 07:59pm, August 23, 2012
by David Mitchell and Dave Young

CENTENNIAL, Colo. — For the first time we are learning that theater shooting suspect James Holmes’ life at the University of Colorado Anschutz medical campus had begun to spiral out of control before June.

In arguing for release “of any and all” of Holmes’ records from the university in court Thursday, prosecutors painted the picture of a man growing increasingly angry at a system he had chosen for success.

“The prosecution was very aggressive today,” said former Denver chief deputy district attorney Craig Silverman. “They’re demanding these records and it’s clear that they’re building a case based on revenge, the kind of motive we see all the time when somebody gets fired from work.”

Prosecutors said Holmes’ professors in the neurosciences department noticed a change in his academic and personal behavior.

So much so, they suggested he find a new field of study.

Eventually he was asked not to come to the science labs any longer.

He began receiving poor grades.

On June 7th he failed his oral exams.

It was after that that he withdrew from the program.

Then, Holmes made threats against the school and was told not to return to campus according to what prosecutors said in court.

“This was an individual who was failing at CU, lashed out against CU so much so that they banned him from the campus,” Silverman says.

CU Denver spokeswoman Jackque Montgomery said Thursday night the university never banned Holmes from the campus. She said she could not comment any further.

The CU threat assessment team alerted campus and local police.

Prosecutors say during this time Holmes began amassing weapons and ammunition used in the horrific attack on the Century 16 theaters July 20.

Before the shooting spree, he’s accused of booby trapping his Aurora apartment with a series of explosives.

Prosecutors believe he was apparently ready to lash out in revenge…against his own failings.

“That’s something we all understand and motivates a lot of murderers,” Silverman says. “It kind of goes against the insanity defense.”

The school has turned over more than 100 pages of documents related to Holmes to the court.

Defense attorneys say the suspect’s school records are subject to student privacy laws and should not be given to prosecutors or admitted as evidence in the case.

Holmes was described as being engaged at times during the court proceeding Thursday, and he asked his attorneys questions.

He’s accused of murdering 12 people in a theater that was filled with people at a midnight showing of the new Batman movie “The Dark Knight Rises.”

Almost 60 people were also shot.

The next hearing in the theater shooting case is scheduled Thursday, August 30. Prosecutors say they will present evidence and testimony at that time. The specifics were not discussed.

Several rulings are expected from the judge before then.

http://kdvr.com/2012/08/23/prosecutors-holmes-banned-from-cu-after-threats/

'I am bad news,' Aurora gunman James Eagan Holmes warned weeks before attack
AURORA, Colo. — The text message, sent to another graduate student in early July, was cryptic and worrisome. Had she heard of “dysphoric mania,” James Eagan Holmes wanted to know?

The psychiatric condition, a form of bipolar disorder, combines the frenetic energy of mania with the agitation, dark thoughts and in some cases paranoid delusions of major depression.
She messaged back, asking him if dysphoric mania could be managed with treatment. Mr. Holmes replied: “It was,” but added that she should stay away from him “because I am bad news.”

It was the last she heard from him.
About two weeks later, minutes into a special midnight screening of “The Dark Knight Rises” on July 20, Mr. Holmes, encased in armor, his hair tinted orange, a gas mask obscuring his face, stepped through the emergency exit of a sold-out movie theater here and opened fire. By the time it was over, there were 12 dead and 58 wounded.

The ferocity of the attack, its setting, its sheer magnitude — more people were killed and injured in the shooting than in any in the country’s history — shocked even a nation largely inured to random outbursts of violence.

But Mr. Holmes, who was arrested outside the theater and has been charged in the shootings, has remained an enigma, his life and his motives cloaked by two court orders that have imposed a virtual blackout on information in the case and by the silence of the University of Colorado, Denver, where Mr. Holmes was until June a graduate student in neuroscience.

Unlike Wade M. Page, who soon after the theater shooting opened fire at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin, killing six people, Mr. Holmes left no trail of hate and destruction behind him, no telling imprints in the electronic world, not even a Facebook page.

Yet as time has passed, a clearer picture has begun to surface. Interviews with more than a dozen people who knew or had contact with Mr. Holmes in the months before the attack paint a disturbing portrait of a young man struggling with a severe mental illness who more than once hinted to others that he was losing his footing.

Court document: Aurora shooting suspect discussed 'killing people' with classmate

Those who worked side by side with him saw an amiable if intensely shy student with a quick smile and a laconic air, whose quirky sense of humor surfaced in goofy jokes — “Take that to the bank,” he said while giving a presentation about an enzyme known as A.T.M. — and wry one-liners. There was no question that he was intelligent. “James is really smart,” one graduate student whispered to another after a first-semester class. Yet he floated apart, locked inside a private world they could neither share nor penetrate.

He confided little about his outside life to classmates, but told a stranger at a nightclub in Los Angeles last year that he enjoyed taking LSD and other hallucinogenic drugs. He had trouble making eye contact, but could make surprising forays into extroversion, mugging for the camera in a high school video. A former classmate, Sumit Shah, remembers an instance when Mr. Holmes performed Irish folk tunes on the piano — until others took notice of his playing, when he stopped. So uncommunicative that at times he seemed almost mute, he piped up enthusiastically in a hospital cafeteria line when a nearby conversation turned to professional football.

Like many of his generation, he was a devotee of role-playing video games like Diablo III and World of Warcraft — in 2009, he bought Neverwinter Nights II, a game like Dungeons & Dragons, on eBay, using the handle “sherlockbond” (“shipped with alacrity, great seller,” he wrote in his feedback on the sale). Rumored to have had a girlfriend, at least for a time, he appeared lonely enough in the weeks before the shooting to post a personal advertisement seeking companionship on an adult Web site.

Sometime in the spring, he stopped smiling and no longer made jokes during class presentations, his behavior shifting, though the meaning of the changes remained unclear. Packages began arriving at his apartment and at the school, containing thousands of rounds of ammunition bought online, the police say.

Prosecutors said in court filings released last week that Mr. Holmes told a fellow student in March that he wanted to kill people “when his life was over.”

In May, he showed another student a Glock semiautomatic pistol, saying he had bought it “for protection.” At one point, his psychiatrist, Dr. Lynne Fenton, grew concerned enough that she alerted at least one member of the university’s threat assessment team that he might be dangerous, an official with knowledge of the investigation said, and asked the campus police to find out if he had a criminal record. He did not. But the official said that nothing Mr. Holmes disclosed to Dr. Fenton rose to the threshold set by Colorado law to hospitalize someone involuntarily.

Yet Mr. Holmes was descending into a realm of darkness. In early June, he did poorly on his oral exams. Professors told him that he should find another career, prosecutors said at a hearing last week. Soon after, he left campus.

That Mr. Holmes, who is being held in the Arapahoe County jail awaiting arraignment on 142 criminal counts, deteriorated to the point of deadly violence cannot help raise questions about the adequacy of the treatment he received and about the steps the university took or failed to take in dealing with a deeply troubled student. In court hearings and documents, Mr. Holmes’s lawyers have confirmed that he has a mental disorder and that he was in treatment with Dr. Fenton. They will undoubtedly use any evidence that he was mentally ill in mounting a defense. Colorado is one of only a few states where, in an insanity defense, the burden of proof lies on the prosecution.

J. Reid Meloy, a forensic psychologist and expert on mass killers, has noted that almost without exception, their crimes represent the endpoint of a long and troubled highway that in hindsight was dotted with signs missed or misinterpreted. “These individuals do not snap,” he said, “whatever that means.”

But who could divine the capacity to shoot dozens of people in cold blood? Or the diabolical imagination necessary to devise the booby traps the police said Mr. Holmes carefully set out in his apartment the night of the rampage, devices that could have killed more?

Cool and detached
A potential for violence was the last thing that came to mind when a graduate student at the university met Mr. Holmes at a recruitment weekend for the neuroscience program in February last year.

“What struck me was that he was kind of nonchalant,” the woman recalled. “He just seemed too cool to be there. He kicked back in his chair and seemed very relaxed in a very stressful situation.”

But his reticence was also apparent, she said.

“I noticed that he was not engaged with people around him. We went around the table to introduce ourselves, and he made a weird, awkward joke,” said the student who, like many of those interviewed, spoke on the condition of anonymity, citing reasons that included not wanting their privacy invaded by other news organizations and hearing from law enforcement or university officials that talking publicly could compromise the investigation. The university, invoking the investigation and the court orders, has refused to release even mundane details about Mr. Holmes, like which professors he worked with.

As the fall term began last year and students plunged into their required coursework, that pairing of laconic ease with an almost crippling social discomfort would become a theme that many students later remembered.

The neuroscience program, which admits six or seven students each year out of 60 or more applicants, sits under the umbrella of the Center for Neuroscience, an interdisciplinary and multicampus enterprise started a little over year ago to bring together basic science and clinical research. More than 150 scientists are affiliated with the center, 60 of them formally involved with the graduate program.

The mix of laboratory scientists and clinicians is “absolutely fundamental” to the center’s goals, said Diego Restrepo, its director. Dr. Restrepo and two other administrators met with The New York Times under the ground rule that no specific questions about Mr. Holmes or the case be asked.

Colorado theater shooting suspect was seeing psychiatrist, lawyers confirm

The research interests of the neuroscience faculty are wide-ranging and include the effects of aging on the sense of smell, the repair of spinal cord injuries, promising drugs for Down syndrome, treatments for stroke, and studies of diseases and disorders like Alzheimer’s, schizophrenia and autism. The center is particularly known for its research on the neurobiology of sensory perception.

In the first year of the program, each neuroscience graduate student takes required courses and completes three 12-week laboratory rotations, said Angie Ribera, the program’s director.

“Students might come in with a strong interest in one area, but we feel strongly that they should get broad training,” she said. “It’s an incredibly supportive group of students. There is a bonding there.”

Other students said Mr. Holmes did his rotations in the laboratories of Achim Klug, who studies the auditory system; Mark Dell’Acqua, who does basic research on synaptic signaling; and Dr. Curt Freed, whose work focuses on messenger chemicals in the brain and stem cell transplants in patients with Parkinson’s disease.

But even in a world where students can spend hours in solitary research, Mr. Holmes seemed especially alone.

He volunteered little information about himself, his interests or what he dreamed of doing with his degree, said one graduate student who, touched by Mr. Holmes’s shyness, tried repeatedly to draw him out. Attempts to engage him in small talk were met with an easy smile and a polite reply — if only a soft-spoken “yo” — but little more.

“He would basically communicate with me in one-word sentences,” one member of the neuroscience program said. “He always seemed to be off in his own world, which did not involve other people, as far as I could tell.”

In classes, Mr. Holmes arrived early to grab a good seat, his lanky 5-foot-11 frame in jeans and sometimes a “Star Wars” T-shirt. He hardly ever took notes, often staring into the distance as if daydreaming. Uncomfortable when called on by professors, he almost always began his responses with a weary-sounding “Uhhhhhhh.”

But there was little doubt about his intellect. In a grant-writing class, where students were required to grade each other’s proposals, Mr. Holmes wrote thoughtful and detailed comments, one student recalled, giving each paper he was assigned to review a generous grade.

“This was the only time I saw an assignment of James’s,” the student said. “Frankly, I was very impressed. I thought his comments were much better than anyone else’s.”

In the spring, just months before the shooting, Mr. Holmes turned in a midterm essay that a professor said was “spectacular,” written almost at the level of a professional in the field.

The essay was “beautifully written,” the professor said, and “more than I would have expected from a first-year student.”

In the talks Mr. Holmes gave after his first laboratory rotations, he often resorted to jokes, perhaps in an effort to cover his unease. During one presentation, he stood with one hand in his pocket, a laser pointer in his other hand. With a slight smile, he aimed the pointer at a slide and crowed “Oooooooh!”

Yet in a video of scenes from Hemingway’s “A Farewell to Arms,” made when he was a student at Westview High School in San Diego, where he was on the cross-country team and was a standout soccer defender, Mr. Holmes proved a deft comedian with a talent for improvisation, his former classmate Jared Bird remembered.

“He kept making funny faces at the camera and making unexpected comments,” Mr. Bird said. “He was being a goofy bartender. We expected him to play it straight, but he made it more interesting, much more comical. He ad-libbed everything.”

By the end of high school, Mr. Holmes was already pursuing his interest in science, attending a summer internship in 2006 at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in San Diego, before going to college at the University of California, Riverside. But if he was beginning the process of finding a career, he was also forging a reputation for extreme shyness.

Report: Doctor treating Aurora shooting suspect had medical reprimand

“I frequently had to ask yes-or-no questions to get responses from him,” said John Jacobson, his adviser that summer, adding that he completed virtually none of the work he was assigned, which involved putting visual illusions developed in the laboratory on the Internet. “Communicating with James was difficult.”

Mr. Holmes was more voluble in e-mails. When he discovered that Mr. Jacobson spoke Mandarin, he began one e-mail to him with a greeting in that language: “Ni hao John.”
But he stayed apart from the other interns, often eating alone at his desk and not showing up for the regular afternoon teas. He was the only intern not to keep in touch with the coordinator when the program ended.

“At the end of the day, he would slink upstairs and leave,” Mr. Jacobson said.

A notable presence
A smile and the air of one who walked a solitary path — they were enough to attract the attention of shopkeepers in the gritty neighborhood just west of the Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora, where students could find cheap, if amenity-free, housing.

On many days, Mr. Holmes could be seen cruising home slowly down 17th Avenue on his BMX bicycle toward the red-brick apartment building where he lived on the third floor, his body arched casually, his gangling frame almost too big for the small bike, a Subway sandwich bag dangling from the handlebars.

Prosecutors pursue two-track strategy against Holmes in Colorado massacre

Waiters and sales clerks recognized him. He washed his clothes at a nearby laundry, took his car for servicing at the Grease Monkey, bought sunglasses at the Mex Mall and stopped in at a pawnshop on East Colfax Avenue, perusing the electronics and other goods for sale.

He favored a Mexican food truck in the mornings, buying three chicken and beef tacos but refusing sauce, and at night he sometimes dropped by Shepes’s Rincon, a Latin club near his apartment, where he sat at the bar and drank three or four beers, a security guard there said. But he spoke no Spanish, and other than placing his order talked to no one.

On several occasions, he was spotted in the company of two other students, one male, one female. Did he date? No one seemed sure. Mostly, he was alone.

“You kind of got that feeling that he was a loner,” said Vivian Andreu, who works at a local liquor store.

“Sometimes,” she said, “I would get a smile out of him.”

Months of planning
He had apparently planned the attack for months, stockpiling 6,000 rounds of ammunition he purchased online, buying firearms — a shotgun and a semiautomatic rifle in addition to two Glock handguns — and body armor, and lacing his apartment with deadly booby traps, the authorities have said.

But Mr. Holmes’s neighbors did not seem to notice — Narender Dudee, who lived in an apartment next to his, did not even hear the loud techno music that blared from his rooms on the night of the shooting.

“I must have been in a deep sleep,” Mr. Dudee said.

Neighbors: Batman shooting suspect likely faced eviction

Studies suggest that a majority of mass killers are in the grip of some type of psychosis at the time of their crimes, said Dr. Meloy, the forensic psychologist, and they often harbor delusions that they are fighting off an enemy who is out to get them.

Yet despite their severe illness, they are frequently capable of elaborate and meticulous planning, he said.

As the graduate students reached the end of their second semester, wrapping up coursework, finishing lab rotations and looking toward the oral exam that would cap their first year, some noticed a change in Mr. Holmes. If possible, he seemed more isolated, more alone.

His smile and silly jokes were gone. The companions he had sometimes been seen with earlier in the year had disappeared.

On May 17, he gave his final laboratory presentation on dopamine precursors. The talks typically ran 15 minutes or so, but this time, Mr. Holmes spoke for only half that time. And while in earlier presentations he had made an attempt to entertain, this time he spoke flatly, as if he wanted only to be done with it.

A student with whom Mr. Holmes had flirted clumsily — he once sent her a text message after a class asking “Why are you distracting me with those shorts?” — said that two messages she received from him, one in June and the other in July, were particularly puzzling.

Their electronic exchanges had begun abruptly in February or March, when she was out with stomach flu.

“You still sick, girl?” she remembers Mr. Holmes asking.

“Who is this?” she shot back.

“Jimmy James from neuroscience,” he replied.

After that, she said, he sent her messages sporadically — once he asked her if she would like to go hiking — though he would sometimes walk right past her in the hallway, making no eye contact.

As the oral exams approached, she recalled, Mr. Holmes seemed relaxed about the prospect, telling her, “I will study everything or maybe I will study nothing at all.”

The goal of the one-hour exam, said Dr. Ribera, the neuroscience program director, “is to evaluate how students integrate information from their coursework and lab rotations and to see how they communicate on their feet.” It is not, she said, “to weed out or weed in.”

As is customary in many doctoral programs, three faculty members ask the questions during the exam. If a student does poorly, the orals can be repeated.

Mr. Holmes took his oral exam on June 7. The graduate student sent him a message the next day, asking how it had gone. Not well, he replied, “and I am going to quit.”
“Are you kidding me?” she asked.

“No, I am just being James,” he said.

A few weeks later, another student recalled, Cammie Kennedy, the neuroscience program administrator, accompanied the students to Cedar Creek Pub on campus to celebrate the completion of the first year. All the students except Mr. Holmes attended.

As the group drank beers and waxed nostalgic, Ms. Kennedy suddenly grew serious.

“I want to let you guys know that James has quit the program,” a student remembered her saying. “He wrote us an e-mail. He didn’t say why. That’s all I can really say.”

Mr. Holmes informed the school that he was dropping out at the same time that members of the threat assessment team were discussing Dr. Fenton’s concerns, the official familiar with the investigation said. Prosecutors in the case have said in court documents that Mr. Holmes was barred from the campus after making unspecified threats to a professor. But university administrators have insisted that he was not barred from campus and said his key card was deactivated on June 10 as part of the standard procedure for withdrawing.
In early July, the woman who conducted the text exchange with Mr. Holmes sent him a message to ask if he had left town yet. No, he wrote back, he still had two months remaining on his lease.

Soon he asked her about dysphoric mania.

Whether the diagnosis was his own or had been made by a mental health professional is unclear. Through a lawyer, Mr. Holmes’s parents declined several requests to talk about their son’s life before the shooting or the nature of any illness of his.

Dr. Victor Reus, a professor of psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco, said dysphoric mania is not uncommon in patients with bipolar disorder, a vast majority of whom never turn to violence.

But in severe cases, he said, patients can become highly agitated and caught up in paranoid delusions, reading meaning into trivial things, “something said on TV, something a passer-by might say, a bird flying by.” Dr. Reus declined to speculate about Mr. Holmes, whom he has never met, and he emphasized that he knew nothing about the psychiatric treatment Mr. Holmes might have received.

But he said that in some cases psychiatrists, unaware of the risks, prescribe antidepressants for patients with dysphoric mania — drugs that can make the condition worse.

Dave Aragon, the director of the low-budget movie “Suffocator of Sins,” a Batman-style story of vigilante justice and dark redemption, remembers receiving two phone calls in late May or early June from a man identifying himself as James Holmes from Denver. The caller had become enraptured with the four-minute online trailer for the movie, Mr. Aragon said — “He told me he’d watched it 100 times” — and had pressed him for more details about the film.

“He came off as articulate, nervous, on the meek side,” he said. “He was obviously interested in the body count.”
Painful retrospect
In the days after the shooting, faculty members and graduate students, in shock, compared notes on what they knew about Mr. Holmes, what they might have missed, what they could have done. Some said they wished they had tried harder to break through his loneliness, a student recalled. Others wondered if living somewhere besides the dingy apartment on Paris Street might have mitigated his isolation.

At a meeting held at Dr. Ribera’s house, a student said, Barry Shur, the dean of the graduate school, said Mr. Holmes had been seeing a psychiatrist. When the authorities told him the identity of the shooting suspect, Dr. Shur said, his reaction was “I’ve heard his name before.”

Cops: Weeks of planning went into shooting at Colo. Batman screening

But all that came later.

No one saw Mr. Holmes much after he left school in June.

A classmate spotted him once walking past the Subway on campus, his backpack in tow. Mr. Dudee, his neighbor, saw him in mid-July, his hair still its normal brown. Perhaps in a sign of ambivalence, he never took the forms he had filled out to the graduate dean’s office, the final step in withdrawing from the university.

He never replied to the fellow student’s last text message, asking if he wanted to talk about dysphoric mania.

At some point on Thursday, July 19, according to the police, he gathered up the bullets and shotgun shells, the gas mask, an urban assault vest, a ballistic helmet and a groin protector and moved into action at the Century 16 Theater.

He mailed a notebook to Dr. Fenton that the university said arrived on July 23, its contents still under seal by the court. And he bought a ticket for the midnight premiere of “The Dark Knight Rises,” as if he were just another moviegoer, looking forward to the biggest hit of the summer.

Sheelagh McNeill, Kitty Bennett and Jack Styczynski contributed research.

This story, "Before Gunfire, Hints of ‘Bad News’", originally appeared in The New York Times.

Copyright © 2012 The New York Times




They are trying a insanity defense for this monster. He's cold blooded, deliberate and not insane but I fear he'll get off. Just breaks my heart when I see little Veronica's pictures. I'm not posting pictures of this monster. If you want his shots from any articles then go to them your self. I don't want to see his evil face, I even hate to post this about him. But to get justice for little Veronica we have to hear some of this.

William

They have a facebook setup for those that don't know.

https://www.facebook.com/AshleyVeronicaIan



They have also setup a help fund. Details can be found at http://www.helpash.org/

Official Donation Account
Donations can be made at any Wells Fargo or Wachovia branch to the Colorado account titled:
Donation Account for Ashley and Veronica Moser

For those who would like to donate, but do not have a nearby Wells Fargo branch, please send a check to:
Colorado Wells Fargo Branch
18515 E Smoky Hill Rd
Centennial, 80015



Why we need you
Ashley Moser and Veronica Moser-Sullivan were a mother and daughter who always had a smile and hug to give and whose love was apparent in the way they spoke and looked at each other.

Tragically, on July 20, 2012 Veronica's life was cut short when a gunman entered a movie theater and opened fire. She was only 6 years old.

Ashley sustained multiple gunshot wounds and is still in the hospital recovering. In addition to grieving for her daughter, she faces a long road to recovery and mounting medical bills. The 25-year old is lucky to have a large and strong family support system, but it won’t be enough for the challenges she now faces.

When a person loses a spouse they become a widow or widower. When a child loses their parents they become an orphan. There is no word to describe a parent who loses a child. The loss is too awful for a name.

Ashley and Veronica’s story:
Ashley Moser, 25, was working on her goal to earn a degree as a licensed practical nurse. She had been accepted to a nursing program and was eager to start. She was a loving mother to Veronica, her only child.

Veronica Moser-Sullivan was a sweet and friendly 6-year old. She loved school and loved playing, and had just started taking swimming lessons. This year, she was supposed to start first grade.

Ashley and Veronica were not strangers to sadness and pain. They lived with Ashley’s father -- Veronica’s grandfather -- David Moser. A few short months ago, David Moser, 55, died after a 10-month battle with leukemia.

Ashley needs your help. She needs prayers and positive thoughts. She needs help through the grieving process after losing her daughter. She needs support, love, and healing energy for the weeks, months, and years of physical recovery that she will likely face. She also needs financial support. If you can donate any amount, it would be greatly appreciated. We are trying to raise enough money to cover the rising bills so that Ashley won’t have to face them on top of all the other things she is going through right now.


William

Prosecution drops pursuit of Holmes’ notebook, says it was delaying trial

AURORA, Colo. -- Prosecutors said they will no longer be pursuing access to James Holmes' notebook, which may include detailed, premeditated notes about the Aurora theater shooting. They may revive that pursuit later.

Hopefully this monster won't get off and little Veronica and the others will get justice. There's a sketch of the monster on the front page of the web site. http://kdvr.com/category/news/

I refuse to post a picture of him, just the little angel he murdered.



She was a gorgeous little angel cut short in life. I hope this monster gets the death penality. Hang him by a piano wire. I have no tolerance for monsters that kill little angels.

William

New documents confirm Holmes trial details, further suggest insanity plea
DENVER — Soon after one the most-scrutinized trials in state history began, a gag order was issued by a judge and many of the court documents were sealed. But on Friday, much of that once-private information regarding suspected Aurora theater gunman James Holmes was made public.

Perhaps one of the biggest new discoveries made from examining over 50 documents that were released Friday morning pertains to Holmes’ defense team. Documents confirm that a psychiatry expert has been added to that group, further suggesting that an insanity plea may be in the works.

Holmes is facing 152 charges for the July 20 attack, which occurred during a midnight showing of “the Dark Night Rises.” There were 12 people killed in the attack and 58 others were injured.

Documents filed by the defense team, meanwhile, ask the judge to sanction members of the prosecution for what they called “reckless disregard for the truth.” Those sanctions, according to documents, were later denied by Arapahoe County District Judge William B. Sylvester.

The accusations from the defense team likely came in response to more information detailed in the new documents.

Though the name of the professor has been blacked out, prosecutors have said that Holmes did threaten a professor at the University of Colorado-Denver weeks before the shooting. When the professor reported that threat, the university banned Holmes from non-public portions of the campus.

The defense team has denied these claims.

The newly-released documents also show the prosecution continuing to build a case alleging that Holmes was angry at the failure of a once-promising academic career. They say he began stockpiling a weapons cache only after his professors began urging him to seek another career due to several academic failures.

Also among the information released with the new documents was a confirmation that Holmes sent a package to CU psychiatrist Lynne Fenton. The packages contains a notebook that reportedly includes descriptions of the shooting, but Fenton has claimed she never saw it.

The details of that notebook remain private after the prosecution recently stopped their push for it. They say they will resume that push if the notebook becomes crucial to the trial — and it likely will if Holmes enters an insanity plea.

Also among the items sent to Fenton by Holmes was an unspecified amount of burnt currency.

Also among the new information released Friday was a statement from prosecutors that Holmes spoke with another university student in March about killing people “when his life was over.

Documents that were not released Friday included an arrest affidavit, which contains information about the police investigation following the shooting.


Figures they would try for an insane plea. Anything to get this monster off. Your not insane if you deliberately plan and execute mass murder. He even reloaded in the theater. This is planned cold blooded killing. Just look at this little angel. My heart breaks when I see her picture.
William

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/4448910/Father-of-the-Batman-killers-youngest-victim-Veronica-Moser-Sullivan-six-tells-The-Sun-Im-truly-heartbroken.html

Here's a few more pictures.




I hope she gets justice.

William

Pictures of young theater shooting murder victim stolen from grandfather

Posted on: 10:02 pm, October 2, 2012, by Web Staff

A relative of one of the 12 people killed in the Aurora movie theater is reeling once again. The grandfather of 6-year-old victim Veronica Moser-Sullivan said Tuesday some of the last photos that he took of the little girl were stolen.

“That’s the last photos that I have of Veronica before she was murdered,” said Robert Sullivan. He said he arrived home from work Tuesday morning to find a door to his Denver house unlocked and his bedroom turned upside down.

He said a number of valuables were taken, including four of his cameras. One silver Canon digital camera contained 30 shots of Veronica. Only some of those images had been downloaded.

“Everybody has those memories and whether or not they’re in your mind and your memory, if you don’t have the tangible proof… the photos, you have no idea how this compounds the pain,” Sullivan said.

He pleaded for the return of at least the Canon camera and memory card and said the latest incident just compounds the theater tragedy.

“The pain I felt all day has just been layered on to the pain of trying to deal with her loss,” Sullivan said.

http://kdvr.com/2012/10/02/pictures-of-young-theater-shooting-murder-victim-stolen-from-grandfather/


I hope he gets the images back. That's just sad.

William

Will, I hope everyone takes note of your avatar and what you have printed there. I pray more and more parents will take heed.

Reports: James Holmes sent to hospital after ‘hurting himself’

Posted on: 5:08 pm, November 14, 2012, by David Mitchell and Thomas Hendrick, updated on: 09:05pm, November 14,

A sketch of James Holmes at a court proceeding on Sept. 20, 2012. (Chris Mosher)

DENVER – Lawyers for Aurora theater shooting suspect James Holmes asked for a postponement Wednesday of his hearing scheduled for Thursday after he was sent to the hospital.

No details were provided about exactly what happened, but the Denver Post reported he required hospital treatment after ramming his head into a cell wall at the Arapahoe County jail.

Public defender Tamara Brady declined to describe Holmes’ ailment. The reports say he went to the hospital Tuesday, and was back in jail Wednesday.

“It’s not as simple as a migraine, and it’s not something I feel will resolve by tomorrow morning,” she told the court.

Judge William Sylvester granted the delay and moved Thursday’s hearing to December 10. Another, previously scheduled hearing, will take place December 13.

Holmes is accused of killing 12 people and wounding 58 during a midnight showing of “The Dark Knight Rises” on July 20.

http://kdvr.com/2012/11/14/theater-shooting-suspect-james-holmes-lawyers-request-delay-in-trial-because-of-condition/

It sounds like a ploy from him to delay the trial or stunt for insanity. I hope this monster does not get off on an insanity plea. Your not insane if you plan and execute the murders like he did. He even took extra guns and ammo. Bobby trapped his apartment with explosives.

This is a cold blooded heartless evil monster that should be executed.
William

He's still breathing so he didn't hurt himself bad enough. Try again killer.

James Holmes' CU psychiatrist was concerned he spoke, fantasized about killing people, sources say
Dr. Lynn Fenton decided against mental health hold

Posted: 12/05/2012
Last Updated: 11 hours ago
John Ferrugia

DENVER - Sources familiar with the Aurora theater shooting investigation say that in early June James Holmes, who was being treated by a University of Colorado psychiatrist, began talking, speculating, and fantasizing about killing "a lot of people."

On June 11th, some six weeks before the massacre at the Aurora movie theater, Dr. Lynn Fenton was so concerned that she called the University of Colorado police department asking for a background check on Holmes. On the same day, Dr. Fenton made a series of calls to members of the University threat assessment team, also known as the BETA team, concerned about Holmes being a possible threat.

Sources now tell CALL 7 Investigator John Ferrugia that Dr. Fenton told the CU police officer, who was also a contact for the BETA team, that she was concerned because James Holmes had been talking about killing a lot of people.

Fenton was so concerned about the potential threat that she broke her doctor-patient confidentiality, giving the officer Holmes' name so the officer could run the criminal background check.

Holmes had no criminal background or any history of violence.

Sources confirm this was one of at least two calls Dr. Fenton made to the the police officer concerning Holmes on June 11th.

In the last call, sources say, the CU officer asked Dr. Fenton if she wanted Holmes detained for a 72-hour mental health evaluation. As his psychiatrist, Fenton could order such a hold.

The officer had no legal reason to order such a hold herself, and sources say had deferred to the doctor's judgment.

Dr. Lynn Fenton told the officer that Holmes had put in his notice that he was withdrawing from the University, according to sources familiar with the investigation. Sources told Ferrugia that Dr. Fenton noted that the hold was not necessary, in part, because Holmes was leaving the campus anyway.

As CALL 7 Investigator John Ferrugia previously reported, that is also why members of the university's threat assessment team dropped the issue. Since Holmes was leaving the campus, sources said they no longer considered him a student and did not think they had authority over him.

The obvious question in all this: If Holmes had not given notice that he was leaving the campus, would Dr. Lynn Fenton had him detained?

Sources familiar with the investigation confirm the female campus officer kept notes of the conversation with the psychiatrist and she notified her police supervisor. While no official report was filed, sources say the notes were kept for a period under normal department procedures.

What now seems apparent is why Dr. Lynn Fenton felt she had to take the serious step of breaking doctor-patient confidentiality which is potentially a federal crime. She was clearly concerned that Holmes' discussion of killing a lot of people could possibly put those on campus in jeopardy.

Holmes allegedly opened fire into a packed Aurora movie theater on July 20, killing 12 people and injuring 58 others.

http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/call7-investigators/james-holmes-cu-psychiatrist-was-concerned-he-spoke-fantasized-about-killing-people-sources-say

Colorado massacre suspect James Holmes asked for notebook back

December 10, 2012, 4:52 PM

CENTENNIAL, Colo. Attorneys for Colorado movie theater shooting suspect James Holmes called the University of Colorado four days after the attack and asked the school to return a package that Holmes sent his psychiatrist, according to testimony Monday.

University of Colorado, Denver, Police Chief Douglas Abraham said that the call alerted authorities to the presence of the unopened package in the campus mail room. He made the disclosure in a hearing in which defense attorneys were trying to determine who told Fox News that the package contained a notebook with writing that detailed violent plans.

Holmes' attorneys contend the disclosure violated a gag order.

Abraham and two other law enforcement officials said they didn't discuss the package with members of the media.

Abraham testified that burnt U.S. currency fell out of the notebook when he picked it up and shook it, CBS News' Julie Gautier reported from the courtroom. Asked if he wore protective gloves while handling the notebook, Abraham said he didn't "because I was careless."

In total, 14 law enforcement officers testified about their experiences with the package and notebook.

Holmes was in court with no visible injuries, sporting a full beard, Gautier reports. It was his first court appearance since being taken to the hospital last month, when he tried to injure himself by ramming his head into his jail cell wall, CBS News correspondent Barry Petersen reports. Holmes was hospitalized with injuries that were called not serious.

A court public information officer confirmed that Holmes parents were in attendance at today's hearing.

Holmes is charged with killing 12 people and injuring 58 others during a shooting at a midnight screening of "The Dark Knight Rises" in July.

Holmes has not entered a plea and won't do so until after a weeklong preliminary hearing in which prosecutors will present evidence supporting the charges. That hearing is scheduled to begin Jan. 7.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57558254/colorado-massacre-suspect-james-holmes-asked-for-notebook-back/

James Holmes court appearance: Aurora theater massacre suspect due in Arapahoe County court today
Posted: 07/23/2012

By: DenverChannel News Team

AURORA, Co. -- James Holmes, 24, will appear in court Monday morning to face dozens of charges in the mass shooting at an Aurora movie theater that killed 12 people and injured dozens more.

An initial advisement hearing is set for 11:30 a.m. (EST) at the Arapahoe County Courthouse. It will mark the first time Holmes has been seen in public since early Friday morning, when he was taken into custody in the immediate aftermath of the shooting.

Holmes has been held in the Arapahoe County Detention Center on suspicion of multiple counts of first-degree murder.

His lawyer is James O'Connor, Arapahoe County's top public defender.

Authorities said Saturday that the case is likely to stay in state court.

Monday's court appearance is expected to be brief. His appearance will start the clock ticking on a 72-hour deadline for the district attorney to file formal charges against him. He'll then have an arraignment to be advised of the formal charges filed against him.

District Attorney Carol Chambers must decide if her office will seek the death penalty in the case. If not, Holmes would get mandatory life in prison without parole, if found guilty of the first-degree murder charges that would be filed against him.

Two of the three people on Colorado's death row were put there by the Arapahoe County District Attorney's Office. They are Robert Ray and Sir Mario Owens, convicted of first-degree murder in the 2005 ambush slaying of a shooting witness and his girlfriend.

Under Colorado state law, a prosecutor must inform the court and the defendant that the state will seek the death penalty within 60 days of arraignment. Under the law, defendants are eligible for the death penalty if found guilty of first-degree murder with at least one aggravating factor, which can include ambushing a victim or using an explosive device.

"It is all but certain that prosecutors will file first-degree murder charges against Holmes in the Arapahoe County courthouse and that they'll seek the death penalty, criminal law expert Sam Kamin, a law professor at the University of Denver, told the Los Angeles Times.
Colorado has executed only one prisoner since the death penalty was reinstated in 1984: Gary Davis in 1997.

Police said Holmes lobbed tear gas into the Century 16 Theater showing the midnight premiere of "The Dark Night Rises," then opening fire on unsuspecting patrons early Thursday.

After he was apprehended, Holmes told officers that he had loaded explosives into his apartment. Crews meticulously cleared the apartment on Saturday.

Read more: http://www.wptv.com/dpp/news/national/james-holmes-court-appearance-aurora-theater-massacre-suspect-due-in-arapahoe-county-court-today#ixzz2HJaJ1oVC

New details emerge as preliminary hearing starts for Aurora theater shooting suspect
Posted on: 10:52 am, January 7, 2013, by Will C. Holden and David Mitchell, updated on: 08:59pm, January 7, 2013

ARAPAHOE COUNTY, Colo. — There was so much blood that the theater floor had become slippery according to police officers who were the first to arrive on the scene of a massacre at the Century 16 theater in Aurora.

They were the first to testify Monday at the beginning a week sure to be full of graphic new details about the Aurora theater tragedy.

A preliminary hearing is underway for suspected shooter James Holmes. The 25-year-old is accused of killing 12 people and injuring another 58 just after midnight on July 20, 2012. He faces 166 counts of murder, attempted murder and weapons charges.

Aurora police Officer Justin Grizzle, a 13-year-veteran, wiped away tears while describing his efforts to rush badly wounded victims to the hospital in his police cruiser, including shooting victim Ashley Moser and her husband, who wanted Grizzle to turn around and head back to the theater.

“He was shot in the head somewhere. He kept asking where his … daughter was,” Grizzle said. “He opened the door and tried to jump out.”

Grizzle said he had to drive and hold the man by his shoulder to keep him in the car.

The girl the man was seeking, 6-year-old Veronica Moser-Sullivan, was shot four times and was among those killed in the shooting at a midnight showing of “Batman: The Dark Knight Rises.” Veronica’s mother, Ashley, faces a long recovery after being paralyzed in her lower half and miscarrying after the shooting.

The scene was still gruesome when Detective Matthew Ingui arrived 12 hours later with other investigators.

“We saw the first victim laying on the ground,” he said “There’s shoes, blood, body tissue and popcorn on the floor.”

Blood was everywhere, he said.

Ingui described how he outlined each of the victims and marked where the bodies were found. Holmes had no visible reaction during the testimony.

The detective said investigators found 209 live rounds of .223 ammunition and 15 cartridges of .40-caliber rounds inside the auditorium.

It was revealed during testimony Monday afternoon that shooting suspect James Holmes bought his movie ticket July 8. That’s almost two weeks before the shooting.

Surveillance video played in the courtroom showed staff dropping to the floor and people rushing to get away from the chaos after gunfire began in Theater 9. The surveillance video was from the lobby and concession stand areas.

It also showed Holmes walking into the theater and using a ticket kiosk. Authorities say he printed out a ticket he had purchased July 8.

Det. Mathhew Ingui said a victim described Holmes as “very calm and moving with purpose.”

Police Sgt. Gerald Jonsgaard said Holmes stopped the theater door from locking by using a small piece of plastic commonly used to hold tablecloths onto a picnic table. Jonsgaard also said he spotted a shotgun and a large drum magazine that appeared to be jammed on the floor of the theater.

Holmes’ attorneys are expected to argue that their client has “diminished capacity,” a term that, according to the Colorado Bar Association, relates to a person’s ability or inability “to make adequately considered decisions” regarding his or her legal representation because of “mental impairment or for some other reason.”

Several times, on cross-examination, they have asked witnesses about Holmes’ demeanor and what he looked like when police found him.

Earlier in the day a pair of Aurora police officers who were the first to encounter the suspected gunman and the bloody massacre were the first to take the stand.

Officer Jayson Oviate and Aaron Blue said when they arrived on the scene of a reported shooting at the Century 16 theater on July 20, they encountered a sea of emotion as crowds fled the out the front of a theater where a gunman had opened fire.

In the back of the theater, Oviate described encountering what he first thought was a police officer. He soon realized it was an emotionless man who was later identified as James Holmes.

“He was wearing body armor head to toe,” Oviate testified at the first day of the preliminary hearing for Holmes, which is expected to last all week. “He was very relaxed, and it was like there weren’t normal emotional reactions of anything.

“He seemed very detached from it all.”

Blue described his experience at the movie theater as anything but detached. After realizing calling an ambulance to the scene would be incredibly difficult in the midst of chaos, Blue began the emotional task of trying to aid victims himself.

Proceeding inside the theater, Blue described almost slipping on a trail of blood leading out of theater nine, where the attack had occurred, finding a young girl hiding behind a dumpster and caring for Jessica Ghawi, one of the 12 who died in the attack.

“I was holding her head,” Blue said of Ghawi. “Every time she moved she stopped breathing.”

Blue said he made four trips to the hospital, including one in which he was transporting Ashley Moser, a wounded pregnant mother who would eventually miscarry and become paralyzed as a result of her wounds.

Crying while trying to compose himself, Blue said there was a man with a head wound in the car who said he was Moser’s. Blue said the man was yelling that he had to go back for his 7-year-old daughter, a girl who was later identified as Veronica Moser-Sullivan, the youngest of those slain in the attack.

Blue said the man kept trying to open the door of his squad car and jump out to return to the scene and look for the child.

Justin Grizzle was also among the officers who ferried victims to the hospital.

“There was so much blood I could hear it sloshing around in the back of my car,” Grizzle testified.

One of the six victims transported to nearby hospitals by Grizzle was Caleb Medely, a stand-up comedian who fell into critical condition after being shot in the head. Grizzle described hearing a “god-awful” gurgling sound Medley mad while trying to breath.

“I shouted, ‘Don’t f*cking die on me,” Grizzle said.

Medley, whose wife gave birth to a baby boy several days after the shooting, is the last victim who remains hospitalized. He is scheduled to be released from the hospital on Jan. 23, but he is still unable to speak and has difficulty standing on his own.

When police turned their attention to Holmes, who was described as “sweaty” and “foul smelling,” Blue said the suspected gunman surrendered without a fight despite there being a semiautomatic handgun near he reach.

Shortly after officers detained him, Holmes was stripped down to his underwear. Later, he voluntarily admitted to booby trapping his apartment.

Blue said officers asked Holmes if those booby traps were rigged to explode.

“He (Holmes) said, ‘If you trip them (they will explode),’” Blue said.

When asked if there was a second gunman who had aided him in the attack, Grizzle said Holmes was hauntingly coy.

“He just looked at me and smiled,” Grizzle said. “It was a smirk.”

The day’s testimony concluded with a detective who interviewed people wounded in the attack and the two coroners who conducted the 12 autopsies.

After the hearing concludes, Arapahoe County District Judge William Sylvester will determine whether there is enough evidence for Holmes to stand trial.

CNN contributed to this report

http://kdvr.com/2013/01/07/officers-holmes-was-strip-searched-we-took-dying-victims-to-hospital/

This guy is no mental. He's a cold blooded killer. No emotions. He planned everything. That's not mental.
I shed a tear when I heard little Veronica was shot four times. God has a special place for those that murder
an innocent. It's about the most heinous sin in God's eye's. For now at least he's behind bars and can't hurt
another child.
William

Preliminary hearing testimony agonizing for theater shooting victims, families
Posted on: 3:59 pm, January 7, 2013, by Julie Hayden, updated on: 05:28pm, January 7, 2013
CENTENNIAL, Colo. — Family members and victims of the Aurora theater shooting waited in a long line on a cold morning Monday, to hear testimony for the first about the crime.

A preliminary hearing began Monday in an Arapahoe County courtroom where the testimony was graphic, vivid and agonizing to hear.

Karen and Tom Teves flew in from out of state to hear how their son, Alex, was killed.

Jessica Watts hugged another victim. Her cousin, Jonathon Blunk, died in the shooting early on July 20 at the premiere showing of the new Batman movie.

Sam Soudani came with his daughter, 23-year-old Farrah, who was critically injured. ”I just want to hold her hand,” he says.

Soudani says the testimony is heartbreaking, especially from police officers describing the horrific scene inside Theater 9 at the Century 16 movie complex.

“I was crying like everyone else and I’m gonna’ cry now. It’s really hard.”

James Holmes appeared in court Monday with a full beard and close-cropped hair.

He looked very different than when he first appeared in court after his arrest. He had orange-dyed hair at that time. But his demeanor remained the same; he showed no reaction to anything said in court.

“He has no emotion,” Soudani says. “It’s like a robot is the best I can explain it, it’s like a robot … absolutely no emotions.”

And what does Soudani think as he watches Holmes? “Trash, I mean honestly. When you see there is no more humanity anymore you don’t look at him as a person.”

He says hearing first-hand what it was like ins the theater when his daughter was shot is agonizing.

“Honestly, no, I don’t know if I will come tomorrow … just the agony sitting and watching them.”

The preliminary hearing could last all week. The judge in the case will decide if there is sufficient evidence for suspect James Holmes to stand trial.

http://kdvr.com/2013/01/07/aurora-theater-shooting-testimony-agonizing-for-victims-families/

I hope the judge decides he's fit for trial. He's just a cold blooded killer.
William

Judge orders arraignment for Colorado theater shooting suspect over lawyers' plea for delay


This courtroom sketch shows James Holmes being escorted by a deputy as he arrives at preliminary hearing in district court in Centennial, Colo., on Monday.

By M. Alex Johnson, staff writer, NBC News

James Holmes, accused of killing 12 people and wounding 70 others at a Colorado movie theater last year, is scheduled to be arraigned Friday after a judge ruled that there was enough evidence to take him to trial.

Earlier in the day, lawyers for Holmes, 25, a former graduate student at the University of Colorado-Denver, asked Arapahoe County Chief District Judge William Sylvester to delay an arraignment, saying Holmes wasn't ready to enter a plea. They gave no reason.

In an order filed late Thursday, Sylvester said he was convinced that prosecutors had established probable cause and ordered that a status hearing scheduled for Friday be converted to a formal arraignment. He ordered that Holmes continue to be held without bond on 166 felony counts, most of them murder and attempted murder.
The murder charges could carry the death penalty. Once Holmes is arraigned, prosecutors will have roughly two months to declare any intention to seek a capital sentence.

Sylvester noted the defense request and told prosecutors to come to court prepared to respond to what he said was a likely motion for a delay, however.

Scott Robinson, a prominent criminal defense attorney in Denver, said that was no surprise.

"It's not unusual for defense lawyers to want more time to prepare," Robinson said. "After all, the prosecution got a huge head start in the case."

The ruling came after three days during which prosecutors laid out some of their evidence against Holmes, who they said meticulously collected weapons and ammunition over many weeks before he went to the Century 16 Theater in Aurora on July 20 and opened fire on a sold-out audience for the premiere of the movie "Batman: The Dark Knight Rises."

They also described how they believe Holmes fiendishly booby-trapped his apartment, turning it into a bomb-filled death-trap for law enforcement.

The hearing closed Wednesday with prosecutors' showing Sylvester a photo, recovered from his cellphone, of Holmes smiling into the camera while gripping a semiautomatic handgun just six hours before the rampage.

"He didn't care who he killed or how many he killed, because he wanted to kill all of them," Arapahoe County Chief Deputy District Attorney Karen Pearson said.

Holmes' attorneys offered little response, calling no witnesses of their own and cross-examining only a handful of the prosecution's witnesses. Holmes sat impassively during the three-day hearing, the dyed red hair he sported in pre-slaughter photos replaced by messy brown hair and a beard.

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/01/10/16453418-judge-orders-arraignment-for-colorado-theater-shooting-suspect-over-lawyers-plea-for-delay?lite

I really hope he does not get off on a mental. This guy is a monster. He just play's everyone. His smirk in court really tells the story. This case is one where the death penality is needed. My state has been bad at imposing improper death sentence but I still disagree with the officials taking it off the table. There are cases where the evidence is so great and the crime so heinous that it requires the death penality. This case is one. If the shooter had lived in the Sandy Hook shooting that would have been one as well. We need stiffer penalities for killing children. Death for a death.

Just look at the picture below. Look at her joy and innocence. The taking of her life was heinous.

Courtesy the family via KUSA. Veronica Moser-Sullivan, in an undated family photo.

Let's get with our law makers. We need stiffer laws for the protection of children. I think all sentences should be doubled with crimes to children. Death for a death.
William

Arraignment postponed for Aurora theater shooting suspect James Holmes

Posted: 01/11/2013 08:46:19 AM MST
Updated: 01/11/2013 09:28:52 AM MST
By John Ingold and Jessica Fender, The Denver Post

CENTENNIAL — An arraignment hearing was set for 9 a.m. Friday for Aurora theater shooting suspect James Holmes.

But defense attorneys say Holmes needs more time before entering a formal plea in the case.

On Friday the arraignment was postponed to March 12.

On Thursday, 18th Judicial District Chief Judge William Sylvester said there is enough evidence for Holmes to face trial on 166 counts of murder, attempted murder and other offenses in connection with the July 20 attack at the Century Aurora 16 theater.

On Friday in court, Holmes' defense attorneys said they had to review 30,879 pages, 358 data disks, 220 DVDs, 136 CDs and 2 BlueRay discs and asked for more time.

The judge agreed, saying that scheduling "too soon could cause appellate issues" if case is appealed.

Sylvester also noted that his ruling Thursday evening "did not give either side a great deal of time to prepare" for a plea.

An attorney on the Arapahoe County prosecution team told the court that of the victims and family members polled, 84 victims objected to the delay, six have no opinion, and three do not object.

After the hearing, one of the victims shouted out "rot in (expletive)."

Read more: http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_22355195/arraignment-set-aurora-theater-shooting-suspect-james-holmes#ixzz2HgYL3AfX

First indication prosecutors will seek death penalty in Aurora theater case revealed
Posted on: 7:15 pm, January 31, 2013, by David Mitchell and Dave Young

ARAPAHOE COUNTY, Colo. — The strongest indication yet that prosecutors in Arapahoe County will seek the death penalty against Aurora theater shooting suspect James Holmes came Thursday.

FOX31 Denver learned that Arapahoe County is hiring the man considered to be Colorado’s top death penalty prosecutor.

Dan Zook is a retired Assistant District Attorney from Colorado Springs.

Arapahoe County D.A. George Brauchler couldn’t speak specifically about the Holmes case, but he told FOX31 Denver hiring Zook makes perfect sense.

“To bring somebody on board your team who has the career experience and really expertise that Dan has in achieving justice on the most complex, complicated and frankly high profile cases around… you’re doing your community a service.”

Holmes’ lawyers are expected to enter a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity on behalf of their client at his next hearing scheduled for March 12.

“If he’s insane then he will not be subject to any sentencing but if he’s convicted of 12 counts of first degree murder this crime is so very premeditated expect the DA to seek capital punishment,” says legal analyst and former Denver Chief Deputy D.A. Craig Silverman.

Criminal defense lawyer Dan Recht says, “Clearly the defense is going to plead insanity given Mr. Holmes clear mental illness and the prosecution is going to indicate that they are going to seek the death penalty.”

Prosecutors will then have at least two months to announce whether they will seek the death penalty against the man accused of killing 12 people in July 2012.

But with so many victims and so much disagreement over death penalty laws, most observers agree a plea agreement to put Holmes away for life is the most likely outcome.

http://kdvr.com/2013/01/31/first-indication-prosecutors-will-seek-death-penalty-in-aurora-theater-case-revealed/

He sure is lucky to be in this country. In some countries in the would he would have been executed by now. William

Colorado shooting suspect James Holmes taken from jail to psychiatric ward for self-inflicted injuries
Since his arrest, the suspected movie theater shooter has been hospitalized twice, according to a newly released court document. Once for 'potential self-inflicted head injuries in his cell' and another time because he was 'in immediate need of a psychiatric evaluation.' He's expected to plead not guilty by reason of insanity.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
SATURDAY, MARCH 9, 2013, 12:22 PM

Excerpt:

DENVER — Colorado theater shooting suspect James Holmes was taken from jail to the psychiatric ward of a hospital in November because he was considered a danger to himself, and he was frequently held in restraints while hospitalized, according to a court document released Friday.

The document said Holmes was taken to Denver Health Medical Center on Nov. 15 because he was "in immediate need of a psychiatric evaluation." It said he was held there for several days.
The document also described an earlier incident in which Holmes was hospitalized for "potential self-inflicted head injuries in his cell." It did not say when that incident occurred.

The revelations heighten expectations that Holmes would plead not guilty by reason of insanity on Tuesday, his next scheduled court appearance.

Holmes' lawyers said on Nov. 14 that he had been taken to a hospital but did not say why. It's not clear if that was the same incident that the new document said occurred on Nov. 15 or the earlier incident.

The hospitalizations were disclosed in a motion by Holmes' lawyers asking Judge William Sylvester to order investigators to preserve hospital surveillance video of the November incident. Sylvester issued the order later Friday.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/james-holmes-hospitalized-self-inflicted-injuries-article-1.1283871#ixzz2N4aDtPNp