Pre-theater note: ‘Obsession to kill’

CENTENNIAL, Colo. — The jury in the Colorado theater shooting trial heard excerpts Tuesday from a notebook in which defendant James Holmes detailed plans for the shooting and described his “obsession to kill” since childhood.

Prosecutors said the notebook sent by Holmes to a psychiatrist just before the attack is evidence that he was sane at the time of the gunfire.

The notebook offered the first glimpse into Holmes’ mental state during the shooting. A gag order previously kept those details secret.

Holmes has pleaded innocent by reason of insanity in the attack that killed 12 people and injured 70 in July 2012.

On Tuesday, Aurora police detective Sgt. Matthew Fyles read passages from the notebook, including one in which Holmes detailed the “obsession to kill” since he was a child and how he would carry out the theater attack.

Holmes also wrote on the reason for his violence, that the “causation is my state of mind for the last 15 years.”

Upcoming Events