Colorado Theater Shooting: James Holmes in Court to Hear Charges - East Idaho News
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Colorado Theater Shooting: James Holmes in Court to Hear Charges

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Getty 072312 JamesHolmesCourtAppearance?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1343646158129RJ Sangosti-Pool/Getty Images(CENTENNIAL, Colo.) — James Holmes, the alleged gunman who went on a shooting spree in an Aurora, Colo., movie theater on July 20, is expected to make his second court appearance on Monday where he will be formally charged for his alleged crimes.

Holmes, 24, is accused of killing 12 people and wounding 58 others during the midnight showing of The Dark Knight Rises.  He is expected to face 12 counts of murder in the first degree and potentially hundreds of other counts including attempted murder and assault.

This will be the second time Holmes has appeared in court.  His first appearance in court on July 23 raised questions among some observers about his mental competency.  The suspected shooter appeared dazed with his head drooping at times.

The judge will also hear arguments on Monday about a package Holmes mailed to his psychiatrist at the University of Colorado, Lynne Fenton.  Holmes’ attorneys filed a motion last Friday demanding that the court “immediately produce all discovery pertaining to the seizure of the package.”

Holmes’ attorneys claim that seizing the package, which is believed to be a notebook written by Holmes, was a breach of confidentiality and they accuse the government of leaking the existence of the package to the media.

“The government’s disclosure of this confidential and privileged information has placed Mr. Holmes’ constitutional rights to due process and a fair trial by an impartial jury in serious jeopardy,” his attorneys wrote.

Holmes’ attorneys say the package is confidential communication between patient and doctor.

Fenton never received the package, but legal experts say that if Holmes ever made specific threats in their meetings, Fenton had an obligation to report them.

“It’s called duty to warn or duty to protect,” threat assessment psychologist Marisa Randazzo said.  

When investigators first found the package on July 23 in the mailroom at the University of Colorado, where Holmes recently dropped out as a neuroscience student, they were so concerned that it — like Holmes’ apartment — would be rigged with explosives, they sent in a robot to handle it.

Inside the notebook they reportedly found plans for a massacre, including drawings of a stick-figure gunman mowing down his victims.  Investigators are analyzing it to see if it could be a roadmap to a massacre.

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