CENTENNIAL, Colo. — James E. Holmes, charged with killing 12 people inside a Colorado movie theater last July, changed his plea on Tuesday to not guilty by reason of insanity.
As the judge read a lengthy document describing the litany of legal consequences and psychiatric examinations that would follow the plea, Mr. Holmes appeared to follow along on a written copy, gazing down as one of his lawyers flipped the pages.
Asked whether he had any questions, Mr. Holmes replied, “No.” It was only the second time he had spoken in court since being arrested minutes after the shooting, which occurred July 20 during a midnight screening of the Batman movie “The Dark Knight Rises.”
Mr. Holmes, 25, has been charged with 166 counts of murder, attempted murder and other charges in the attack. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty. In March, a judge denied his lawyers’ request for a delay and entered a plea of not guilty.
With the insanity plea, the trial will hinge not on questions of whether he carried out the mass shooting, but on his mental condition at the time. In the weeks ahead, a psychiatric expert will pore over thousands of pages of evidence and conduct evaluations of Mr. Holmes at a state mental health institute in Pueblo, in southern Colorado. That examination, to determine an independent assessment of his sanity, is likely to take until at least early August.
The judge, Carlos Samour, also ordered the release of a notebook that Mr. Holmes, a former neuroscience student, sent his psychiatrist shortly before the shooting.
Daniel King, one of Mr. Holmes’s public defenders, argued that the notebook was a privileged communication between a doctor and patient that should remain secret because it was never actually seen by his university psychiatrist. Police seized the notebook in a mailroom at the University of Colorado three days after the shooting. It has been under seal in court offices, but will now be turned over to prosecutors on Monday, one more piece of evidence in one of the largest and most complex criminal cases in Colorado history.
As the judge read a lengthy document describing the litany of legal consequences and psychiatric examinations that would follow the plea, Mr. Holmes appeared to follow along on a written copy, gazing down as one of his lawyers flipped the pages.
Asked whether he had any questions, Mr. Holmes replied, “No.” It was only the second time he had spoken in court since being arrested minutes after the shooting, which occurred July 20 during a midnight screening of the Batman movie “The Dark Knight Rises.”
Mr. Holmes, 25, has been charged with 166 counts of murder, attempted murder and other charges in the attack. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty. In March, a judge denied his lawyers’ request for a delay and entered a plea of not guilty.
With the insanity plea, the trial will hinge not on questions of whether he carried out the mass shooting, but on his mental condition at the time. In the weeks ahead, a psychiatric expert will pore over thousands of pages of evidence and conduct evaluations of Mr. Holmes at a state mental health institute in Pueblo, in southern Colorado. That examination, to determine an independent assessment of his sanity, is likely to take until at least early August.
The judge, Carlos Samour, also ordered the release of a notebook that Mr. Holmes, a former neuroscience student, sent his psychiatrist shortly before the shooting.
Daniel King, one of Mr. Holmes’s public defenders, argued that the notebook was a privileged communication between a doctor and patient that should remain secret because it was never actually seen by his university psychiatrist. Police seized the notebook in a mailroom at the University of Colorado three days after the shooting. It has been under seal in court offices, but will now be turned over to prosecutors on Monday, one more piece of evidence in one of the largest and most complex criminal cases in Colorado history.