Jul 23, 2012 No Comments ›› Pat Dollard
Excerpted from The Daily Mail: The gunman suspected of brutally slaying 12 moviegoers during a screening of The Dark Knight Rises in Aurora, Colorado has appeared in court for the first time looking disheveled and wide-eyed.
James Holmes, 24, who dyed his hair red in a reported bid to look like Batman’s arch nemesis The Joker, looked straight ahead in Arapahoe County Courthouse as the judge advised him of the case.
Holmes is being held on suspicion of first-degree murder after he shot dead 12 cinema-goers and wounded 58 in a horrifying shooting spree just after midnight on Friday morning.
The judge ordered the suspected gunman, who some commentators suggested may have been suffering from a lack of sleep, to have no contact with any surviving victims or their relatives.
UPDATE: 11:30 a.m. ET: James Holmes, the suspect in the Colorado theater massacre, appeared in a Colorado courtroom on Monday. A judge informed Holmes there were grounds to continue to hold him for 72 hours.
Holmes appeared dazed: his brow furrowed, his eyes opening and closing often. His hair was dyed red. He did not speak.
The preliminary hearing lasted for about 11 minutes.
EARLIER:
CENTENNIAL, Colo.—The public will get its first look at the alleged movie theater gunman Monday morning when suspect James Holmes appears in a Colorado courtroom.
Monday’s hearing, which will be broadcast live on television and the Web, is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. MDT (11:30 EDT) and could be very brief. Under Colorado law, Holmes will be advised of his rights, but few other details could emerge.
A decision on whether to seek the death penalty could be weeks or months away, District Attorney Carol Chambers told reporters as she entered the courthouse.
“It will be a conversation we have with the victims before we make that decision,” Chambers said.
Holmes, 24, is accused of blasting his way through a packed movie theater on Friday in Aurora, Colo., during a midnight screening of “Dark Knight Rises.”
Twelve people died and 58 others were injured in the shooting. The rampage is among the worst mass shootings in modern-day American history.
