James Holmes in court Monday: What will his defense be?

reply to post by svetlana84


To Kiwasabi and svetlana84,

I imagine we will get into that once they start talking about some of the forensics, if it goes that far during the prelim. All we received so far is testimony from cops about witness statement, some of Holme's statements and his demeaner, atf and fbi agents, and a couple of personnel from the coroner's office. They have described the wounds to 41 of the victims so far. I would imagine that the rest of the victim injuries will wrap up this morning. Then probably some of the homicide detectives and/or CSI might take the stand. I am just guessing though. It is supposed to last through Friday.

My spidey senses are tingling all over.
I wasn't even halfway through this thread before the thought popped into my head that they will probably try to execute him for this.

1: Holmes is seen in the car park and in the foyer of the cinema. He is seen entering cinema 9.
2: Holmes takes a call, and leaves via the emergency exit.
3: Someome re-enters with a gun and starts shooting the place up. I've seen and heard no evidence that it was Holmes doing the shooting. If he was wearing a gas mask, it could have been anyone. Goatee-man, possibly?
4: Holmes is picked up in the car park wearing a gas mask.
5: A second gas mask is picked up outside the rear of the cinema.

My guess?
Holmes is a fall guy.
He's knowingly taking the rap for a crime someone else committed. He took the call, swapped places with someone on the outside who committed the crime who was already armed and wearing a gas mask. Holmes walks back out to the car park and dons another gas mask and waits to be picked up. Meanwhile the other gunman gets away, dropping his mask behind the cinema.

The fact that they didn't do a tox-screen or blood work on him kinda makes me think that they've already got all the information they think they need to know to tell the masses about this guy. The story is already written, signed and stamped.

reply to post by Lulzaroonie


Not to mention Holmes is being represented by the State by their public defenders. This whole prosecution/defense could be directed by someone very high up, including the Attorney General.

I have some experience with public defenders, their main purpose is to work out plea deals. Assitant DA's jobs are to lie, cheat, fabricate, and hide evidence and are directed by higher ups especially in high-profile cases.

reply to post by GrantedBail


Thanks for the info. I learned from the CT shooting that jumping to conclusions isn't the best thing to do.
That s why i noted my "Not entering the conspiracy before i get more news. "

Looking forward to the CSI and other testimonies.

Day 3 of the preliminary hearing in the #theatershooting case by the prosecutors is attempted to geomg finished but the ned og the today (Wednesday) Not sure who else the prosecution will present, but fead spomething, realy redent in last couple of days or maybe it was even 5. early about. May be time for the defense to begin there calling other witness, and reguttle and cross of couse all the lese tate-calling motives or theories. You will not see withness testimony IMO, those are reserved fortrial. The only hear is witnessss statments and acounds through proecutors they have signed and agreed to report those to the Judge.

That is California law anyway.i

reply to post by GrantedBail


Not to mention they threaten and harrass the family member's to come down and talk to them so they can twist your statements. Scumbag of the lowest ameba turd their is.

reply to post by GrantedBail


No offence, but what? Haha. I can't understand half of what you've written...

www.denverpost.com...
"Prosecutors revealed Wednesday that Aurora theater shooting suspect James Holmes took photos of the Century 16 theater weeks before the July 20 massacre."

These images were found on his iphone. How do they know Holmes took these pics?

"Another photo shows all of the gear used in the attack — the guns, the body armor, helmet and gas mask — arrayed neatly on Holmes' bed. ... Fyles testified that police they found four gas masks, although only two belonged to Holmes."

How very nice of the suspect to implicate himself with these damning images. Beware when the case seems to be a little bit too 'open and shut.' And who did the other gas masks belong to, if not Holmes?

Double post. Mods please delete.

Without reading the other posts, I think he should be given life sentence, but not death. He should also have many counseling and psychiatric sessions and help. Media should be told to keep away from him, and he should be kept safe from those who may cause him harm. Life imprisonment, is honestly, bad enough, no matter what people may think.

Just imagine, having your entire life taken away, and for the rest of your long (short if you see it that way) life, you only see bars, and grey walls, with no hope of ever leaving. For most people, that is a fate worse than death.

(EDIT: If it SOMEHOW wasn't him, and he was just a fallguy, I hope the 'real' shooter is caught.)

Originally posted by fusse

Originally posted by kiwasabi
It's amazing how people on ATS no longer care about this case. On to the next thing already?

Was wondering the same thing. Guess this is no longer relevant to most.

Not only is it amazing, given the current increase of rhetoric with the whole "gun control issue" being brought up recently. That, and the amount of unknowns / what if's / and very strange things surrounding this whole ordeal, and it makes me wonder if that whole gag order ultimately worked as planned.

Yes, there are some major factual anomalies in this case, some of which have been pointed out in the other threads here... and on the 'net in general. I won't even attempt to list or link them all, just provide a synopsis of the odd ones for the new readers,

The main ones that I find strange, in order of magnitude:

1. The suspects car:
a. Why were both of the passenger side windows broken out?



When we were told:

Officer Jason Oviatt said that after arriving at the scene of the shooting to find victims bleeding on a street corner, he followed a "trail of blood" and ran with his gun drawn to the back of the cinema building. There, he said he saw Holmes wearing a gas mask, helmet and clad head to toe in body armour, standing next to a white car with the driver's door open. He said he initially thought he must be a police officer.

source

Relevant Questions: If the drivers side door was already open - then who broke out the passenger side windows, and why? Holmes (did he try to get back into his car?) Police? (if he was actually found in the car instead of outside, as stated)

b. The notebook (supposedly sent to Fenton)
Planted...?


Possibly, but I have no proof that is the said package at this stage.

2. Gas masks: Total of four - (admitted that 2 of which belonged to Holmes)

Fyles testified that police they found four gas masks, although only two belonged to Holmes.

Hrrmmm.... really?

Why would he have a second mask, and furthermore.... a spare Glock in the passenger side door pocket, while I can't find a link to the where the second pistol was found, I'm sure I've read it in the last few days.

Not to mention the booby trapped apartment, and going through the lengths on taking protective measures (body armor) and then willfully surrendering with no attempt to resist or otherwise take another way out, (which had to be said)

Ultimately, I'm left pondering the very real idea that Holmes might not have been alone in his planning and preparations for this, and that could be why there is a total shutdown of information regarding this.

I'd say the notebook was certainly planted.

Regarding the broken windows of Holmes' car, perhaps they were broken by the bomb squad robot? I guess the police are actually stating that the spine board was left by the bomb squad team.

As for the 2nd gas mask, that's a very telling sign of something being amiss. Apparently they're saying a cop "accidentally moved one of Holmes' masks". I guess that's how they're claiming a gas mask got all the way to the corner of the theater? Scott Creighton on willyloman called this the "magic mask theory". By the way, I'm pretty sure they're counting your "scuba-like" gas mask as one left by emergency personnel.

sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net...

Ultimately, there's no proof that James Holmes was the person who shot those 70+ people. Police are now claiming, however, that Corbin Dates changed his story to say that the person who opened the door had red hair sticking out from underneath a beanie. Even with this bogus testimony, that STILL doesn't prove that the person who did the shooting was James Holmes.

reply to post by kiwasabi


The supposed moving of the gas mask, along with not drug testing Holmes, both seem like massive incompetence by investigators if true. Of course, now they're implying he was wearing contacts to explain his pupils when arrested (I've already seen reports extrapolating from the photos with the contacts to his state when arrested), and there's no drug test to show anything different. How convenient.

Why would the bomb squad need a spine board to look under the car? They have all the tools they need without improvising like that. What would it be used for, anyway? The car's too low to the ground for a person to get under, unless they're trying to get us to believe that they blithely jacked up a car they suspected might have a bomb under it and let someone go under it? I doubt that...

Corbin Dates's reported testimony certainly seems to have changed from what he was saying in media interviews.

And the timing of when the bomb at his apartment was supposed to go off is still way off, the music was set to start playing at 12:30 when the shooting was about to start so it wouldn't have meant police resources were already at his apartment to allow more time for the shooter at the cinema as he's supposed to have claimed. How would such a meticulously planned operation have such a massive glaring mistake?

Originally posted by telemetry

Originally posted by fusse

Originally posted by kiwasabi
It's amazing how people on ATS no longer care about this case. On to the next thing already?

Was wondering the same thing. Guess this is no longer relevant to most.

Not only is it amazing, given the current increase of rhetoric with the whole "gun control issue" being brought up recently. That, and the amount of unknowns / what if's / and very strange things surrounding this whole ordeal, and it makes me wonder if that whole gag order ultimately worked as planned.

I agree, it seems incredible to me how little attention is being paid to this on sites like this and I can't understand it.

You're right, the gag order has been extremely effective - not for getting a 'fair trial' for Holmes (as if) but for allowing prejudicial and harmful information out about him and the massacre without it being possible to investigate or refute it. The 'fair trial' line just seems like a blatant lie imho.

And the notebook, yeah.

I don't think police said he had the dark contacts on when arrested. They testified that his pupils were dilated and that he seemed "out of it". The dark contacts thing was only in regard to the pictures "he took of himself" that they revealed today (as far as I'm aware).

Regarding the spine board, someone on James Holmes Open Forum on Facebook posted this, "None of the med staff used white spine boards. Yellow and bright orange are the issue for Aurora and Denver EMT. That white one is from somewhere else. There's suposed to be pix in JHII of each area's color and white is not one of them."

The claim that the rigged apartment was meant to split police resources is bogus. The true motive behind the rigging of the explosives was to further implicate James Holmes as the perpetrator. Police also say James Holmes told them he rigged up an RC Car with explosives and left it by the dumpster for someone to play with. Only thing is, they searched THE ENTIRE dumpster and never found it, so it never existed. That gives me an indicator of the fact that James Holmes hadn't the foggiest idea of what kind of explosives setup there actually was.

Originally posted by kiwasabi
I don't think police said he had the dark contacts on when arrested. They testified that his pupils were dilated and that he seemed "out of it". The dark contacts thing was only in regard to the pictures "he took of himself" that they revealed today (as far as I'm aware).

Sorry, that was me not being clear, I didn't hear that the police claimed that but I did read at least one news report that mentioned the contacts in the photos and then the journalist said that was why his pupils looked dilated when he was arrested. It looked like the journalist's assumption, I haven't read that the police said it. I honestly can't remember where I read it though, sorry.

Sorry for not being clearer about that.

Regarding the spine board, someone on James Holmes Open Forum on Facebook posted this, "None of the med staff used white spine boards. Yellow and bright orange are the issue for Aurora and Denver EMT. That white one is from somewhere else. There's suposed to be pix in JHII of each area's color and white is not one of them."

That's interesting then, I wonder where it did come from.

The claim that the rigged apartment was meant to split police resources is bogus. The true motive behind the rigging of the explosives was to further implicate James Holmes as the perpetrator. Police also say James Holmes told them he rigged up an RC Car with explosives and left it by the dumpster for someone to play with. Only thing is, they searched THE ENTIRE dumpster and never found it, so it never existed. That gives me an indicator of the fact that James Holmes hadn't the foggiest idea of what kind of explosives setup there actually was.

That's really interesting, I had no idea that it never existed. Wow! Your conclusion is very persuasive.

Do you think this will go to trial, or end with a plea deal and everything being sealed? If it ended without a trial, would there be any public inquiry/investigation into how it happened? I'm not in the US so I really have no feeling for what will be decided, so I'd really appreciate your thoughts!

Thanks

Another question this raised for me, please note I am not an American citizen, I don't know how the US legal system does things, if this happened in JULY - 6 MONTHS AGO - why has it taken so long to go to trial?

Clearly not for case building. They can't even competently apprehend a suspect and carry out what I would have thought to be mandatory drugs testing on someone, who by their own standards was off.

It's almost as though they were waiting for another event to happen, something which could help them and the gun control movement...

I'm just jumping in with this, I remember reading in another thread that as people were trying to get away from the shooter, others came running back in because because there was another shooter, shooting at them as they were trying to get out.
Is this true?

Day Three seems to start with photos Holmes took of the theatre, homemade bombs, and of himself

Among the images pulled from Holmes's iPhone were two shots taken on June 29 of what appeared to be the interior of the Century 16 theater, where the attack that killed twelve people and injured seventy others took place. One of the photos was of a door jamb and its hinges, presumably to show "how the door operates," Fyles said.

snip>

Also displayed were photos of a small plastic piece used to hold tablecloths on picnic tables; previous testimony made note of them. The piece was covered with aquamarine duct tape. Subsequent photos taken by police after the assault showed that what appears to be the same plastic piece was used to prevent the exit door from locking, thereby allowing re-entry.
Another photo from Holmes's iPhone depicted the outside of the theater at night and the purple exit doors. The image was taken at 11:30 p.m. on July 5. And at 12:28 a.m. on July 11, he took another photo of the exit doors.

On July 16 at 8:27 p.m., Holmes apparently took a photo of a table in the living-room of his apartment. The image focused on a small, blond-wood kitchen table with a matching chair. On the table was a potted plant, as well as wires, canisters, bottles and a roll of the aquamarine duct tape. Nine homemade bombs connected by a yellow cord could also be seen on the carpet.

link

The defense has decided to not put on a defense and the hearing is over. Friday morning there will probably be a formal arraignment where he will enter a plea. The judge said that there will be one camera allowed.

The final day and total story is here:
link