CENTENNIAL — During lulls in his son’s sentencing hearing Tuesday, Robert Holmes’ gaze drifted from the attorney cross-examining him to the man convicted of killing 12 people in an Aurora movie theater.
There, just a few feet away, James Holmes sat shackled to the floor at the defense table. The father raised his eyebrows at his son a few times during his testimony and gave him a faint smile as the day wrapped up.
In hours of testimony aimed at saving his son’s life, Robert Holmes sought to paint a human picture of the boy he raised and knew. Before being questioned, he took a seat and exhaled deeply.
“It’s been a difficult experience,” Robert Holmes said of the time he has spent at the murder trial. His wife, Arlene, will take the stand Wednesday. She sat in the courtroom Tuesday, occasionally crying as her husband testified.
During this second part of the penalty phase, the same jurors who convicted Holmes of murder will decide whether to send him to prison for life or consider sentencing him to death.
Much of the father’s testimony consisted of sharing family photos and videos that showed his son playing soccer, going to Disneyland, giving his grandma bunny ears with his fingers and being knee-deep in mud with his sister Chris.
Robert Holmes said it was only after the July 20, 2012, attack — in which his son killed 12 people and wounded 70 at the Century Aurora 16 — that he realized that mental illness ran in his family.
“Our family never really talked about it,” he said, noting that members of his family, including his sister and father, exhibited signs of mental illness.
Defense attorney Tamara Brady asked Robert Holmes whether he loved his son. He said that he does.
“He’s my son, and we always got along really well,” Holmes said. “He was always a really excellent kid.”
Robert Holmes was often stiff in his comments about his son. At one point, he was asked whether his son was affectionate with his sister.
“He was fine,” the elder Holmes said.
How was your relationship with your son? Brady asked.
“I think our relationship was fine,” Holmes said.
The father recalled neighborhood birthday parties, soccer games and family outings as jurors were shown old photos and videos. His son seemed more withdrawn as he grew older, Holmes said.
When his son came home for Christmas break in 2011, his father said he “looked sick and weak. He didn’t seem to be doing very well at all.” Holmes said his son was diagnosed with mononucleosis.
“Most of December, he spent sleeping and resting,” he said.
Holmes said it was during that visit that he first noticed an odd expression on his son’s face that he likened to a “smile, grimace or smirk.”
“I wasn’t quite sure what it was,” he said, although he said it was similar to the expression in a mug shot he saw of his son after the shooting. The jury was then shown the photo.
James Holmes didn’t have much contact with his parents after his Christmas visit.
Robert Holmes was worried his son was depressed after breaking up with his girlfriend and leaving school. But during a rare phone call — on July 4, 2012, less than three weeks before the theater shooting — James Holmes was very talkative, his father said.
“He sure didn’t sound depressed,” he said. “He was pretty chatty. He was talking quite a bit. He did seem to be making sense. We had a talk, and at that point we were making plans to go see him.”
By then, the gunman had already amassed an arsenal of weapons, ammunition and gear. When Brady asked Holmes whether he knew what his son was planning, the father said: “It didn’t even cross my mind.”
Holmes said he has been able to see his son three times since his arrest.
“He was clearly really messed up,” he said, adding that his eyes were bulging and his pupils were dilated. “He told us he loved us. … I could see something was wrong with him.”
After a day spent sharing intimate family moments with a courtroom of attorneys, jurors and onlookers, Robert Holmes was asked to think of the fondest memories of his son.
“He was happiest when he was playing soccer,” he said, gazing into the distance. “It was some of all of our happiest times.”
