James Holmes, the suspect in the Colorado movie shooting, was charged Monday with 24 counts of first degree murder and 116 counts of attempted murder in a case that could see him face the death penalty, Fox News reported.
Holmes, a 24-year-old former graduate neuroscience student, is
accused of attacking the packed audience at a midnight premier of the
Batman movie The Dark Knight Rises in Aurora, California, earlier
this month.
Prosecutors contend he used four guns to spray the theatre with
gunfire, killing 12 and wounding 58 others. 10 victims of the July 20
shooting remain in hospital, four of them in critical condition.
Ashley Moser, the critically injured mother of a six-year-old girl
killed in the rampage in Aurora, has suffered a miscarriage, her
family said.
Holmes had been under the care of a psychiatrist at the University
of Colorado prior to the shooting, according to court documents filed
last week.
Holmes reportedly sent the psychiatrist a journal detailing his
plans for the attack, but the package lay unopened in the university
mailroom until after the massacre. Defense attorneys want the journal
to remain a privileged communication.
Holmes is being held in isolation in the Arapahoe County Jail and
has only been seen once since the attack - in a preliminary court
hearing last week in which his bright orange hair and strange
behaviour sparked widespread speculation about his mental state.
