Prosecutors on Friday wrapped up their eight-week-long case against James Holmes, who is claiming he was insane when he opened fire inside the Aurora movie theater in 2012, killing 12 people.
Colorado Judicial Department via AP
Prosecutors on Friday rested their case against James Holmes, the man who opened fire in a theater in Aurora, Colorado, in 2012, killing 12 and injuring 70 others.
Over the course of eight weeks, prosecutors called mental health professionals and victims to the stand to deliver both emotionally gripping accounts of what happened that night and a look into Holmes' troubled state of mind in an attempt to persuade a jury that he was sane when he pulled the trigger.
The last witness in their case was Ashley Moser, who was paralyzed, suffered a miscarriage, and lost her 6-year-old daughter as a result of the shooting, the Associated Press reported.
James Holmes
Andy Cross / AP
On Friday, Moser, who was in a motorized wheelchair, testified that she thought kids were setting off fireworks in the theater, and had reached for her daughter's hand to leave, but it "slipped through my hand."
Moser said she then felt a pain in her chest and fell on her daughter.
"I heard the movie still playing and people crying and screaming," she said.
Later that day, Moser learned her daughter had died.
Holmes' defense team has not argued that Holmes, a former University of Colorado Denver graduate student, was the gunman who walked into a showing of The Dark Knight Rises and opened fire. Instead, his attorney has built a defense around the assertion that he was in the grip of a psychotic episode and should be found not guilty by reason of insanity.
Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty, while defense attorneys are arguing that Holmes should be committed to a mental hospital. They are expected to begin presenting their case next week after the remaining 19 jurors, and seven alternates, get a five-day break.
from BuzzFeed - USNews http://ift.tt/1d6InZB
No comments:
Post a Comment