this for us. prosecutors told a jury that james holmes who has drastically changed his appearance over time knew exactly what he was doing when he opened fire on a crowd of people who simply wanted to see a movie. i m going to come right here and ask you to hold him accountable for murdering 12 people and trying to murder 70 others. the former neuroscience student was tethered to the floor and admits he was the gunman but claims he was insane. his mind had been overcome by a disease of the brain that had plagued him. but for the first time, prosecutors played video of holmes telling psychiatrists his goal was a high death count. i only count fatalities. if the jury finds the gunman not guilty by reason of insanity, he ll likely spend the rest of his life in a mental hospital, but if guilty he s facing life in prison or a death sentence. clayton sandell, abc news, centennial, colorado.
the university of colorado realizes the shooting suspect is a student. emails show warnings going out to the student body. about an incident in theater. eventually it reports the suspect is a neuroscience student. and in one email, the sender who was a person with a program informed students that therapists will be available and then asks them that they refer any media questions that they get to a spokesperson. then she ends the message with this. quote: in the meantime, i requesting and she skipped a word there, that you please not post anything on facebook, twitter, et cetera. also, shep, we did learn yesterday that the theater will reopen to the public for movies and all on january 17th. shep? alicia acuna in denver tonight. thanks. big legal changes in the state of washington. the governor there this morning signed the brand new law that makes gay marriage legal. hundreds of couples had already lined up outside the office of kings county auditor there is a three day waiting perio
but what went wrong? shepard: it is the questions. james holmes did not enter a plea today. but given the questions about his mental health and the news that he was seeing a psychiatrist legal experts say it s likely the former neuroscience student will try some sort of insanity defense. alicia acuna live in centennial colorado with the news tonight. alyssia, prosecutors still have to decide whether they want the government to kill him for his crimes, if convicted. that s right, shep. and the district attorney has indicated that s her preference. but carol chambers has more than a month to decide. today chambers held back on what her office could have charged holmes with, deciding to focus more on the victims in the theater than his apartment building, which police say he rigged to explode. experts say the defense will drag this out. given that this is likely a death penalty case, the strategy of the defense is to keep their client alive as long as possible. every opportunity to
student. we re about to hear his voice for the first time. we did not hear him in court. this is holmes speaking at a science camp in san diego from 2006. he s 18 years old in this video obtained by abc news. and here he talks about a shared interest with a mentor. he also studied subjective experience, which is what take place inside the mind as opposed to the external world. i m carrying on his work in dealing with subjective experience. and in jail a just-released inmate told the new york daily news he saw holmes spitting at guards and at the door of the cell. tonight he s in suicide watch and in solitary confinement. and we heard from the suspect s parents. their lawyer saying they did not want to address their relationship with their son but they do stand by him. investigators are scouring holmes apartment after a robot detonated an explosive over the weekend. while the evidence may seem overwhelming and there are no other suspects in this case that we know of, th
obtained by abc news. and here he talks about a shared interest with a mentor. he also studied subject ift experience, which is what take place inside the mind as opposed to the external world. i m carrying on his work in subjective experience. and in jail a just-released inmate told the new york daily news he saw holmes spitting at guards. tonight he s in suicide watch and in solitary confinement. and we heard from the suspect s families. their lawyer saying they did not want to address their relationship with their son but they do stand by him. investigators are scouring holmes apartment after a robot detonated an mroet explosive over the weekend. while the evidence may seem overwhelming and there are no other suspects in this case that we know of, the d.a. says she s not taking anything for granted. i would say there s no such thing as a slam dunk case. it is a case where we will we re still looking at the enormous amount of evidence. and we would never presume th