CENTENNIAL, Colo. 鈥斕鼳urora theater shooter James Holmes didn鈥檛 know any of the 12 people he murdered on July 20, 2012. But in an interview with psychiatrist William Reid last year, he made an accurate prediction: 鈥淭hey鈥檙e going to make me know them.鈥�
By 鈥渢hey,鈥� Holmes meant the prosecution 鈥� and he was right. For the first month of trial, victims of the shooting testified daily.听Amid testimony about online purchases and bullet trajectories, these witnesses shared their stories,听repeatedly shifting the trial鈥檚 focus from killer to victims.
But lately, the trial has revolved entirely around the shooter himself.听Monday marked the third day that the prosecution, seeking the death penalty, has screened Reid鈥檚 psychiatric evaluation with Holmes. For Sandy Phillips, the mother of victim Jessica Ghawi, that鈥檚 too much to take.
鈥淭oday was just too hard to listen to,鈥� she said in an interview.
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Phillips has stoically represented her daughter and the other victims every day in court. But after a particularly troubling video segment Monday afternoon, she left the courtroom in tears. And she wasn鈥檛 the only one affected: several jurors covered their mouths with their hands, and one reporter walked out.
The offending segment featured the gunman explaining his theory about human capital and self-worth. According to his model, every human life has an 鈥渁rbitrary value鈥� of 1; upon killing someone, the killer accrues the value of the victim. The shooter reasoned that, because he killed 12 innocent people in a movie theater, his personal value is now 13.
Reid, speaking with the defendant in late summer 2014, clarified that he didn鈥檛 just feel this increased value immediately after the shooting. Two years after, calm and medicated, the shooter assured him that he still believed his value was higher for having killed.
鈥淚n some ways it was worse than the autopsies,鈥� Phillips said of the video. 鈥淭o know your loved one was reduced to a number so he could feel enhanced is excruciating.鈥�
Dr. Reid found other parts of the gunman鈥檚 responses troubling as well. When Holmes said homicide was a 鈥渃oping mechanism鈥� for stress, Reid didn鈥檛 buy it.
鈥淭hat sounds like psychobabble to me, I鈥檓 sorry,鈥� he said.
The psychiatrist had to repeatedly caution the defendant against using medical terms inappropriately. When Holmes spoke of 鈥渋nternal conflict,鈥� Reid called it 鈥渕ore of that psychobabble crap.鈥� When he called his reaction to 6-year-old Veronica Moser-Sullivan鈥檚 death 鈥渞emorseful,鈥� Reid told him to choose a smaller, simpler word. The defendant chose 鈥渟ad.鈥�
Many have speculated throughout the trial that the gunman, a neuroscience graduate student, knew how to prepare for an insanity defense. He has admitted to researching mental illnesses, and his answers in the evaluation video are peppered with psychiatry terms. He diagnosed himself with more than a dozen mental illnesses in his infamous notebook and mailed it to his psychiatrist. He has said he has a 鈥渂roken brain.鈥�
It will be up to 12 jurors to decide whether the defendant is criminally insane. The defense will present its case to the court beginning in late June. But if courtroom reactions are any indication, any sympathy the shooter may have won with the small talk and childhood stories of previous video segments has dissipated.
鈥淗e is incapable of real human emotion or empathy,鈥� Phillips said.听鈥淗e is a monster.鈥�
Trial will resume Tuesday at 8:40 a.m. The prosecution expects the psychiatric evaluation video to continue until Thursday afternoon.
Editors note: CU News Corps will honor the victims of the shooting in every post with this graphic.听
