CENTENNIAL — Jurors in the Aurora theater shooting trial Thursday took a second, and expected, step toward deciding on a possible death sentence in the case.
After roughly seven hours of deliberations that began the day before, jurors determined that the 2012 murders at the Century Aurora 16 movie complex were heinous enough for James Holmes to be eligible for the death penalty.
The decision came one week after the jury of nine women and three men found Holmes guilty of first-degree murder in the shooting deaths of 12 people inside the theater. It means the case now moves forward into step two of the sentencing process, during which defense attorneys will seek to humanize Holmes in the hopes of persuading jurors to sentence him to life in prison.
Jurors must deliberate two more times before they could deliver a death verdict.
The finding was anticipated by both sides — even though it took longer than expected — and it came without the same kind of emotional catharsis for the victims’ families that the guilty verdicts afforded. Six parents whose children were killed in the theater sat on the victims’ side of the courtroom Thursday when the jury’s decision was announced. While the decision was read, the mother of Alex Teves clutched a small medallion she wears in memory of her son.
Forty minutes later, defense attorney Rebekka Higgs stood before the jurors, ready to begin the defense’s case against a death sentence. Looking back at her, one of the alternate jurors wore a T-shirt bearing the artwork for the Metallica album “Ride the Lightning” — an image that features an electric chair.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” Higgs began, “the first thing I want to let you know is we accept your verdicts. The most solemn decision, though, yet lies ahead for you.”
In a two-minute opening statement, Higgs encouraged jurors to listen to the defense’s witnesses in the coming days with compassion and understanding. She said the defense will give jurors a complete picture of Holmes’ life.
“You are now responsible for that life,” she said, “and you ought to know everything you can about that life.”
Minutes later, the defense called the first of 10 witnesses of the day, a former neighbor of Holmes’ family.
“They seemed like a very calm, peaceful family to me,” Holly Price said.
Next came a clerk at Holmes’ elementary school.
“He was very popular, very bright,” Suzanne Diaz said.
Later came a piano teacher, a high school classmate and a middle school band instructor.
“He was a hard worker, a good trumpet player,” James Posteraro remembered. “He was a good boy, a good boy at the time.”
In the stream of testimony, a gap emerged between how Holmes was described as a young boy and as a teen.
To people who knew him as a child when his family lived in the central California county of Monterey, Holmes was a fun-loving kid with lots of friends.
“There was a whole band of them,” recalled former neighbor Sandra Becker, whose son was friends with Holmes.
To people who knew him as a teenager after his family moved to the San Diego area, Holmes was shy and withdrawn. High school cross-country coach Lori Godwin remembered having to rearrange the team photo several times just to persuade Holmes to be a part of it.
“Everyone sat in circles,” she said of the team. “But he wasn’t part of the group. He wasn’t bullied. But he was just kind of a shadow.”
Colorado’s system for deciding a possible death sentence is a seesaw affair.
Because state law allows the death penalty for only the worst of the worst murders, the first step requires prosecutors to prove at least one statutorily defined way in which the crime meets that standard.
Step two is where the defense presents its “mitigation” case, at the end of which jurors will be asked whether the things that make the murders so awful outweigh the things that suggest leniency, such as Holmes’ mental illness or background. If they do, the case moves to step three, where victims’ family members can testify and jurors make the final decision.
John Ingold: 303-954-1068, jingold@denverpost.com or twitter.com/johningold
