After Aurora shooting, suspect calm, relaxed, policeman tells court

Aurora police officer Justin Grizzle leaves court after testifying at a preliminary hearing for James Holmes at the courthouse in Centennial, Colo., on Monday. Grizzle fought to keep his composure during his testimony, in which he described wounded people trying to run and crawl away from the theater.
Aurora police officer Justin Grizzle leaves court after testifying at a preliminary hearing for James Holmes at the courthouse in Centennial, Colo., on Monday. Grizzle fought to keep his composure during his testimony, in which he described wounded people trying to run and crawl away from the theater.

Correction: James Holmes, accused of the fatal shooting rampage in Aurora, Colo., had seen a psychiatrist at the University of Colorado, Denver. The type of mental health professional Holmes visited was incorrectly described in this article.

A police officer testified at a preliminary hearing Monday that when he responded to emergency calls about a mass shooting at a crowded movie theater this summer, he found the suspected gunman standing calmly outside his car in a parking lot just moments after the man had opened fire inside, authorities say, killing 12 people and injuring 58 others.

“He was very relaxed,” said the police officer, Jason Oviatt. “It was like there weren’t normal emotional responses to anything. He seemed very detached.”

Oviatt said that because the suspect, James Holmes, had been wearing a helmet and a gas mask, he had first thought he was a fellow police officer.

“He was just standing there,” said the officer, as all around them panic-stricken people fled the Aurora, Colo., theater as quickly as they could, many with bullet wounds, many others covered in blood.

But after a few moments, Oviatt realized that aside from his calm demeanor, there was something else dangerously amiss about the man, whom he had first seen standing perfectly still - his hands were oddly positioned on the roof of his white car.

He noticed that Holmes, who was wearing a red jumpsuit, was sweating profusely and that he was emitting a very foul body odor.

Then, as he placed the compliant Holmes into handcuffs, the officer learned why Holmes may have been standing in such an unusual way, reluctant to move: A handgun was lying on the roof of the car where Holmes’ hands had been.

While frisking Holmes, he said, he found that he was swathed in layers of body armor, which officers eventually had to cut off with knives to search him adequately.

The police would find an assault rifle just outside the emergency exit door of the theater, and a shotgun inside.

Police officers were among the first people to testify at a week-long court hearing that will determine whether there is sufficient evidence to move the case against Holmes to trial, a decision that will be made by William Sylvester, a district judge in Arapahoe County.

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AP

Tom Teves, with his wife, Caren, leaves a preliminary hearing for James Holmes on Monday in Centennial, Colo. The Teves’ son, Alex, died in the shooting while protecting his girlfriend from gunfire.

But for victims and their families, the hearing may offer the best, and perhaps only, opportunity to understand how the July 20 shooting unfolded, and to get a glimpse into Holmes’ actions and mind-set in the weeks before the attack. A criminal trial - if one ever convenes - remains months away, probably at the end of a long series of legal arguments, including over Holmes’ mental fitness to stand trial.

Daniel King, a public defender for Holmes, homed in on observations from the police about Holmes’ behavior that night. He called attention to the fact that Holmes was so relaxed and disconnected from his surrounding, and that his eyes were dilated.

On Monday, for the first time, the final placid moments before the shooting came to life in video images captured by the theater’s security cameras. As excited teenagers high-fived each other and bought popcorn, Holmes walked into the Century 16 theater, holding the door open for another couple. He retrieved his ticket by scanning his smart phone, dawdled at the popcorn counter for a few moments, and then headed toward the theater.

In the next silent video played by prosecutors, theater employees suddenly craned their heads toward something off screen. Gunshots. They ducked behind the ticket counter. Frantic moviegoers filled the screen, racing through the front door and into the night.

It has been more than five months since Holmes, a neuroscience graduate student, was accused of striding into a midnight screening of The Dark Knight Rises at a movie theater in an Aurora shopping mall and opening fire.

He faces more than 160 counts of first-degree murder and attempted murder.

On Monday, police officers described the scene inside the theater in graphic terms, describing amounts of blood on the floor so copious that they had trouble keeping their footing. As the movie played on and cell phones rang incessantly, the officers said, they went from person to person, checking for signs of life.

“They were screaming, they were yelling: ‘Help us! Help us!”’ said Justin Grizzle, a police officer who was among the first to respond.

Realizing there were not enough ambulances to transport all the injured to hospitals, the officer said, he began putting people in his patrol car. He made four trips to the hospital, he said. By the end, he could hear the sloshing sound of blood in the back of the car, he said.

As Sgt. Gerald Jonsgaard recalled not finding a pulse on the youngest victim, 6-yearold Veronica Moser-Sullivan, a woman in the courtroom sat with her head buried in her hands.

Lawyers for Holmes, 25, have signaled they might call witnesses this week to discuss his mental state in the hope of rebutting the prosecution’s evidence that Holmes spent months methodically buying 6,000 rounds of ammunition, handguns, a shotgun and an assault rifle. He had also booby-trapped his apartment with explosives, which he told police about after he was arrested.

Legal analysts have said the evidence appears to be so strong that Holmes may accept a plea agreement before trial.

In such cases, the preliminary hearing can set the stage for a deal by letting each side assess the other’s strengths and weaknesses, said Laurie Levenson, a former federal prosecutor and a professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles.

They “are often the first step to resolving the case, a mini-trial so both sides can see the writing on the wall,” she said.

In general, plea agreements help prosecutors avoid costly trials, give the accused a lesser sentence such as life in prison rather than the death penalty, and spare the victims and their families from the trauma of going through a lengthy trial.

At this stage, prosecutors must only meet a “probable cause” standard - much lower than the “beyond a reasonable doubt” standard for a guilty verdict, said Mimi Wesson, a professor of law at the University of Colorado Law School.

It took this long to get to the preliminary hearing because lawyers have been debating what physical evidence should be made available to one side or the other, whether a psychiatrist who met with Holmes is barred from testimony by doctor-patient privilege, who was responsible for leaks to the media, and other issues.

The fact that Holmes did not kill himself, unlike gunmen at Sandy Hook Elementary School, Columbine High School or Virginia Tech, has transformed the aftermath of the tragedy into a trying and costly legal case.

Although Holmes has not yet filed a plea, his lawyers have said several times that he is mentally ill. Holmes had seen a psychologist at the University of Colorado, Denver, where he had been a graduate student, and had so alarmed his doctor that she contacted the campus police about him.

Less than a month before the shooting, after he had dropped out of his neuroscience program, Holmes sent a text message to a classmate that suggested he believed that he suffered from dysphoric mania, a bipolar condition that combines manic behavior and dark, depressive tendencies. Holmes warned the classmate to stay away from him “because I am bad news,” the classmate has said.

Information for this article was contributed by Jack Healy and Dan Frosch of The New York Times and by Dan Elliott of The Associated Press.

Front Section, Pages 1 on 01/08/2013

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