1 | (AP) - At least 100 victims and witnesses of James Holmes' deadly attack on a Colorado movie theater are expected to testify about the crime's profound and continuing impact on their lives during a formal sentencing hearing starting Monday. |
2 | The three-day hearing gives survivors a chance to share their harrowing stories with the judge, but it won't change Holmes' sentence. |
3 | Jurors already determined that Holmes will spend the rest of his life in prison without parole for the July 20, 2012, attack that killed 12 people and injured 70 others. |
4 | Judge Carlos A. Samour Jr. will formally sentence Holmes to life on 24 counts of first-degree murder - two for each of those killed. |
5 | This week's testimony will help him determine Holmes' sentences on 141 other counts that include attempted murder and an explosives charge. |
6 | Samour has not set a limit on the number of people who can take the stand. |
7 | Many victims testified during Holmes' four-month trial about the terror and carnage he inflicted on more than 400 people who filled the seats at a sold-out midnight movie premiere of "The Dark Knight Rises" in suburban Aurora. |
8 | Holmes, a former graduate student in neuroscience, slipped into the darkened theater, threw gas canisters into the crowd and opened fire with a shotgun, assault rifle and semi-automatic pistol. |
9 | Now, victims will be able to talk about the enduring harm he caused. |
10 | They won't be able to address Holmes directly but rather the judge. |
11 | Holmes will also have an opportunity to speak, though he declined to do so during his trial. |
12 | State corrections officials will determine where Holmes will be incarcerated after an evaluation that includes his mental health. |
13 | That could last up to 60 days, Department of Corrections spokeswoman Adrienne Jacobson said. |
14 | Colorado prisons have an extensive mental health care system, and Holmes, who has been diagnosed with varying forms of schizophrenia, could wind up in the department's mental hospital, the 250-bed San Carlos Correctional Facility in Pueblo. |
15 | The department has four levels of security for inmates, and those serving a life sentence, like Holmes, are usually classified at the highest or second-highest security level, Jacobson said. |
16 | She said she couldn't speculate on what kind of prison routine Holmes or any inmate would have. |
17 | Holmes' attorneys blamed the massacre on his schizophrenia and psychotic delusions, and experts testified that it wouldn't have happened if he were not seriously mentally ill. |
18 | Jurors quickly rejected his insanity defense, convicting him on July 16 of 165 felony counts. |
19 | But they could not unanimously agree on the death penalty for Holmes. |
20 | After the trial, prosecutors said Holmes' fate ultimately came down to a single juror, who said she could not morally impose a death sentence after hearing testimony about Holmes' mental illness. |
21 | The Aug. 7 verdict shocked many in the courtroom and the community, who assumed Holmes would pay with his life for one of the deadliest mass shootings in U.S. history. |