ARAPAHOE COUNTY — Denver Post reporter Noelle Phillips’ updates from Day 20 of the Aurora theater shooting trial at the Arapahoe County Justice Center in Centennial, Colorado.
Day 20
District Attorney George Brauchler is expected to call one of two psychiatrists who evaluated James Holmes for the courts. Dr. William Reid is expected to be on the stand for days as prosecutors have said they plan to show 22 hours of taped interviews.
Holmes has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to all 166 charges in connection with the July 20, 2012, attack at an Aurora movie theater. Holmes shot and killed 12 people and wounded 70. If convicted, Holmes could face the death penalty.
The trial resumed at 8:40 a.m. Thursday.
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WATCH LIVE: Aurora theater shooting trial
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9:03 a.m.
Judge Carlos Samour Jr. took the bench at 8:39 a.m.
He had some issues to discuss with attorneys before jurors were brought into the courtroom. They discussed whether Holmes’ religious views should be included in a document from the dating website Match.com. The judge wanted prosecutors to redact the religion category on his online profile. Holmes had written that he was agnostic.
Samour also instructed the lawyers to remember his rulings on Dr. William Reid’s testimony. Reid is one of two court-appointed psychiatrists who evaluated Holmes. Prosecutor George Brauchler wants to show the full 22-hour interview, but Samour has ordered that some portions are redacted. Those redactions have been made, Brauchler said.
Samour also gave instructions on what Reid is allowed to testify about.
Samour addressed two objections about whether Holmes ever appeared detached from reality. He overruled the objection because he thought the question was about observations of Holmes’ demeanor. But he thought about the objections and decided jurors may interpret the question differently. He doesn’t want the answers to appear to be opinions about Holmes’ sanity.
Samour has drafted a proposed instruction to the jury. They should not interpret as opinion or comments on Holmes’ sanity. Instead, they should only consider those comments as observations.
“I have thought about it, and it has caused me to be a little concerned about it,” Samour said. “I have asked that the question not be asked in that form any more.”
Brauchler said he does not object to Samour’s proposed instruction to the jury. But he wanted clarity on how to phrase the question for future witnesses. Samour said it would be better to ask for specifics on Holmes’ behavior, not whether he seemed detached from reality.
Defense attorney Dan King said he had no objection to the instruction.
Juror 706 asked to speak to the judge. She wanted it to be private and Samour asked if she would be comfortable discussing it in open court. She said she would.
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LIVE BLOG: Aurora theater shooting trial
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9:23 a.m.
The jury was seated at 9:10 a.m. Samour gave them their new instructions as discussed earlier in the morning.
The first witness was Lucas Jordan Smith, who was in the Century Aurora 16 movie theater to watch “The Dark Knight Rises.” Prosecutor Lisa Teesch-Maguire asked the questions.
Smith went to the theater with his wife. While some moviegoers have offered detailed accounts of their day in the hours before the movie’s midnight premiere, Smith gave very few details, saying it was normal day.
He and his wife sat about four rows up on the left side of the stadium seating. They were close to the aisle. He noticed someone enter a side door in full-tactical gear. The person threw “an incendiary device.” He began shooting people in the crowd.
“I got up to leave and I believe that’s when I was shot. I hid the rest of the time,” Smith said.
He and his wife crouched behind seats on their knees. He heard gunfire, screaming and people moving around.
“I was thinking I was going to die,” Smith said.
He could smell whatever was in the incendiary device and gunpowder.
To escape, Smith and his wife ran out the theater through a main exit once the shooting stopped.
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NOTEBOOK: Read the contents of the defendant’s notebook
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9:26 a.m.
Smith, a shooting survivor, said as he and his wife ran to their car he felt pain in his leg. As he started to drive away, he saw wounds.
“We drove to Children’s Hospital,” he said.
He had eight buckshot pellets in his right thigh, from the knee to the hip.
Smith was released from testimony after prosecutors showed a picture of him in the hospital.
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TRIAL HIGHLIGHTS: What you need to know
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9:31 a.m.
Michael Torrian White Jr. was the second witness. He also was inside the theater during the shooting.
He went with his father, his father’s girlfriend, his step-sister and his girlfriend, Farrah Soudani. Soudani worked at Red Robin, a hamburger restaurant in Aurora. A large group of employees had gone to the movie to celebrate a birthday.
White took a shotgun blast to the shoulder. It shattered his scapula and broke ribs, and he also took a bullet to his leg. In surgery, doctors removed part of his scapula.
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10:04 a.m.
Jurors were given a copy of Holmes’ Match.com profile. They spent several minutes reading what he had posted on the online dating site.
Prosecutor Jacob Edson called the third witness, Tony Russell Evans. He owns Cannonfuse.com, a website for amateur fireworks enthusiasts who want to make homemade pyrotechnics.
Evans discussed invoices and credit card receipts from an order Holmes had made on July 3, 2012. He fulfilled an order for:
— 24 round plastic balls
— A 1/4 inch timing fuse for shells
— Six packages of 12 missile tubes
— Short fuses that burn blue
— A launch control receiver to set off fireworks by remote control.
The online purchase cost $183.97, including shipping.
Jurors asked a question for the first time on Thursday. A juror wanted an explanation on how a launch controller works and the distance it is effective for setting off fireworks. Evans said it works with a short-range, line-of-sight transmitter. The effective distance is 25 to 30 feet, Evans said. It’s about the size of a pack of cigarettes. It heats a wire that lights a fuse. It would not work if there were walls between the transmitter and the firework.
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10:47 a.m.
Jurors took a 20-minute break.
Prosecutors re-called Jeremy William Phelps, an FBI agent who worked on the case. Phelps was called to testify about e-mails and pictures found in a couple of e-mails.
The e-mail accounts belong to dsherlockb@gmail.com and classicjimbo@gmail.com.
Holmes used the “classicjimbo” account to sign up and participate in adult dating websites, Phelps said. He used the account to e-mail photos of himself in early July 2012 to a dating website. One picture is a head shot with Holmes and his bright orange hair. Another is a selfie with a dark background. The third photo was of Holmes and a blonde woman. All the pictures were sent from an iPhone.
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10:56 a.m.
Most of the e-mails affiliated with the “dsherlockb” account were sent to “Goober,” which is the nickname Holmes used for his mother.
On July 18, Holmes sent six photographs to this email account from Holmes’ iPhone:
A picture of Holmes in some sort of black outfit with a “q” in the subject line.
A picture of the movie theater exterior with the letter “w” in the subject line.
A picture of the kitchen in Holmes’ apartment with “t” in the subject line.
A picture of Holmes’ apartment with red and blue lights glowing from lamps. The letter “e” was in the subject line.
A picture of the exterior doors on the Century Aurora 16 theater with the letter “r” in the subject line.
A picture of the interior of Holmes’ apartment with “y” in the subject line.
The subject lines spell out “qwerty,” which is the word associated with a standard American keyboard.
Brauchler also asked Phelps to point out a gap in e-mails between Holmes and his mother, Arlene Holmes, between May and July 2012.
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11:14 a.m.
Jurors were given a few minutes to read over the e-mails before Phelps, the FBI agent, was dismissed.
The next witness is expected to be on the stand for several days. He is Dr. William Reid, a court-appointed psychiatrist who evaluated Holmes. He was picked by the Colorado Mental Health Institute of Pueblo.
Reid has 22 hours of video footage of those interviews. Brauchler has said he wants to show the entire 22 hours.
First, Reid must establish his credentials for the jury.
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11:29 a.m.
Reid, 70, has been a psychiatrist for more than 40 years.
Reid’s bachelor’s degree is in psychology from the University of Minnesota. His medical degree is from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. He then went to the University of California, Davis to complete his psychiatric residency. Before finishing his residency, he got drafted by the Army and spent two years working as a psychiatrist at Fort Polk, La., where he worked with soldiers training in the infantry.
Reid also holds an advanced degree in public health.
After his residency, Reid practiced two years in Santa Fe, N.M. In 1977, he moved to the University of Nebraska where he taught in the medical school and oversaw the university’s psychiatric residency.
After nine years in Nebraska, Reid moved home to Texas where he had a private practice for three years. He then served seven years as the state’s medical director for mental health services.
In 1996, Reid went into private practice, which he still does.
Reid said he has seen thousands of patients and the majority suffered from a mental illness. He has treated patients with schizophrenia, bipolar and other serious disorders. He has never treated children.
“Most of the folks I saw, no matter where I was, were seriously ill people,” Reid said.
Reid also has expertise in forensic psychiatry, which is the intersection of mental health and the law. He has multiple board certifications, including one in forensic psychiatry.
He is licensed to practice medicine in Texas and six other states. He participates in multiple medical societies and has been published in medical journals.
Reid said it is critical to understand the language in forensic psychiatry.
“For example, the word sanity has a much different meaning to a criminal court than it does at a cocktail party,” Reid said.
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11:37 a.m.
Reid has testified in 60 to 70 trials in 20 states. He’s also testified in federal court. About 12 to 15 of those cases have been capital murder cases that went to trial.
In only one case has Reid served as a court-appointed expert. This will be his second time. In all but one of the other cases, he was hired by defense attorneys to testify.
Samour ruled that Reid is qualified to give expert opinions on Holmes’ mental state.
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11:41 a.m.
Reid almost immediately told the court that Holmes knew what he was doing and the consequences of his actions.
“My opinion is that whatever he suffered from, it did not prevent him from forming the intent and knowing what he was doing and the consequences of what he was doing.”
Brauchler said Reid had jumped ahead. He was trying to get Reid to explain the purpose of the evaluation — Did Holmes know what he was doing was wrong?
The attorneys then went into a bench conference with Samour.
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1:43 p.m.
The trial resumed at 1:30 p.m. The first order of business was discussing Dr. Reid’s testimony. He was asked to leave the courtroom while the judge and attorneys debated his earlier testimony on Holmes’s sanity.
Reid was asked one question but answered another — and more importantly — offered an opinion. The defense objected.
Samour studied case law during the lunch break and gave a lengthy explanation to attorneys on his understanding of what court-appointed sanity experts may say during their testimony.
Ultimately, Samour ruled that Reid had not violated any court orders and, therefore, denied a motion for a mistrial. Reid was not opining on whether or not Holmes had determined whether was he was doing was right or wrong but that he was capable of doing so, the judge said.
However, defense attorney Dan King offered another objection to Reid’s testimony.
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2 p.m.
Defense attorney Dan King argued that the jury did not receive the correct instruction on the standard for a sanity defense in Colorado.
“I feel like the jury has been misinformed,” King said.
He asked for Brauchler’s question and Reid’s answer to be struck from the record.
Samour did not agree. “I don’t think there was anything wrong with what was asked or what was answered earlier,” he said.
The judge told Brauchler to clarify his question and the psychiatrist’s answer once the jury returns. He also gave Brauchler and assistant district attorney Rich Orman time to discuss the instructions with Reid to prevent further issues with his testimony.
King also asked for clarification on the instructions Samour will give the jury regarding what it means for a defendant to be able to distinguish right from wrong.
Everyone agreed that Samour should give the jury additional instructions on the insanity defense and what it means in Colorado.
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2:10 p.m.
The jury returned to the courtroom at 2 p.m., more than two hours after they were sent to lunch.
Samour went over the Colorado definition of sanity. The jury said they understood, and Samour said they will get instructions in writing once testimony has concluded.
Brauchler again asked Reid about his conclusions on Holmes’ mental capacity.
“Is it your opinion that the defendant suffered from or met the diagnostic criteria for a mental illness?” Brauchler asked.
“Yes,” Reid answered.
“Despite what that mental illness is, is it your opinion the defendant had the capacity to know right from wrong as the court defined it for this jury?” Brauchler asked.
“Yes,” Reid said.
Reid said that Holmes met the definition of legally sane.
“Let’s talk about how we got there,” Brauchler said.
He moved on to ask Reid about how he prepared for his evaluation of Holmes.
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2:26 p.m.
Reid began his work on Holmes’ mental state in May 2014. But he did not interview Holmes until late July 2014.
Brauchler said they will get to the videotaped interviews, but first he wanted to ask about the information Reid received from the defense team and from prosecutors.
“Everybody wants to watch these videos,” Brauchler said.
The defense brought their documents to Reid in person while the prosecution shipped their information.
The prosecution’s evidence given to Reid included videos from Denver Health Medical and from the Arapahoe County Jail. They also gave him Holmes’ social history and a copy of the notebook. He also received jail records, interviews with witnesses from Denver Health and officers at the Arapahoe County jail and e-mails with affidavits, notes and interviews.
Reid said he considered everything the defense provided him in his decision.
The prosecution gave Reid 70,000 to 75,000 pages of copy and multiple DVDs and CDs. Reid did not review everything. For example, boxes of victims’ medical records were not relevant to his task, Reid said.
He read victims’ statements. He also watched all jail video for Holmes’ first seven to 10 days, which were recorded 24 hours each day. He did spot checks of jail video after that.
Brauchler asked Reid why he watched so much footage of Holmes’s first week in jail.
Reid said there were two reasons. First, he wanted to know what Holmes looked like in jail.
“The second thing, the period closest to the event in my mind is the most likely to be relevant to the event,” Reid said.
Brauchler asked Reid what he was looking for when reviewing the material.
“I’m looking for things that suggest there is or may be serious psychiatric issues,” Reid said. “I’m looking for things that might suggest an incapacity. I’m not looking if he’s capable. I’m looking for things that show he’s not capable.”
But Reid said he saw “some oddities” but he did not see anything that showed “Goodness, this is evidence of or highly suggestive of insanity.”
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2:37 p.m.
Holmes slept at odd hours. Otherwise, he ate, slept, read and played with a hacky sack. He seemed to follow instructions, Reid said. Mostly, he was like a normal inmate.
Reid spent about 300 hours reviewing material and talking to people involved in the case before he ever interviewed Holmes.
Reid read Holmes’ notebook. He read details of Holmes’ Google chat conversations with an ex-girlfriend, and he reviewed text messages between Holmes and a female classmate.
Reid wanted to know how Holmes was performing in school. He looked at how Holmes was spending his days and weeks. He said he wanted as many versions of that period he could find. He spoke with multiple teachers, friends and classmates.
“The whole idea here is how he is functioning in life and the world, his world,” Reid said. “The whole idea is to know as much as possible about that before I interviewed him.”
The psychiatrist wanted to know “how is he functioning, what is he capable of, no matter what diagnosis he had,” Reid said.
Reid also spoke with other psychiatrists involved in the case, including those picked by the defense and prosecution to serve as experts.
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2:52 p.m.
Reid discussed Holmes with every other psychologist or psychiatrist who had worked with him before and after the shooting. He said he did not want to miss anything when he started the interviews with Holmes.
Reid also spoke with people from Denver Health who were involved in a November 2012 incident. He also watched video of Holmes falling off his bed at the jail and ramming his head into a wall. But he said those events were not relative to what happened in July 2012.
Reid spoke with Bob and Arlene Holmes, the defendant’s parents. They were cooperative and their information was taken into account when Reid made his determination on Holmes.
Reid traveled to Aurora in July 2014 and went to the theater, the jail and the Aurora Police Department. The theater had been re-modeled and so had Holmes’s apartment. Reid met Holmes during the jail visit, but the introduction was brief. No real assessment was started at that point, Reid said.
“You just wanted to be thorough,” Brauchler said.
“You said it more quickly than I did,” Reid replied.
Reid said he wanted to do so much study because two years had passed between the shooting and when he interviewed Holmes. The psychiatrist said he wanted to do everything possible to know what Holmes was like in the days before and after the shooting.
As far as he knows, Reid is the only psychologist or psychiatrist to record his interviews with Holmes. He believes the video keeps him from being distracted by taking notes or from making erroneous notes. It also allows others to see for themselves exactly what took place.
He doesn’t like lawyers to be present during an interview but the video gives them a chance to see what went on.
Reid never hides video cameras so Holmes knew he was being recorded. No one else was in the room during the interview.
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3:08 p.m.
Brauchler took the opportunity to ask Reid about his discussions with a psychiatrist hired by Holmes’ defense team. Reid told the court he did not hear anything from that doctor to show that Holmes was insane.
He also briefly discussed the impact that isolation at the Arapahoe County jail may have had on Holmes.
“Isolation frequently makes mentally ill people worse,” Reid said. “For some mentally ill people, the predictability and stability of isolation in a jail helps,” Reid said.
Reid said he watched Holmes’ pupils and pulse during his interviews. They can help tell a person’s mental state or brain. But Holmes’ pupils and pulse did not give any indication into his mental state, Reid said.
Many of Brauchler’s questions were designed to establish Reid’s methods for evaluating people and to help the jury understand what they would be watching in the video-taped interviews.
Finally, Brauchler showed Reid DVD copies of his interviews with Holmes. They were made at Colorado Mental Health Institute at Pueblo.
The jury was given a break before the videos were shown.
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3:27 p.m.
The first segment of the video interview between Reid and Holmes lasts one hour and 50 minutes.
The jury agreed to stay later than usual to watch the entire segment.
The psychiatrist had nine sessions with Holmes. Each lasted between one to three hours.
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3:43 p.m.
The fist videotaped interview with Holmes took place on July 30, 2014. It began with introductions and pleasantries — and a warning that nothing Holmes said would be confidential.
Reid brought Holmes some juice to drink during the video. He had heard that Holmes preferred juice over water.
In the courtroom, Holmes first watched the video of himself from his chair behind the defense table but later stared straight ahead.
Holmes told Reid that he flew in a prop plane on part of the trip to Pueblo. He also said it snowed part of the time, but he wasn’t scared during the flight.
The first question was, “How are they treating you at the jail?”
“Good,” Holmes said.
Holmes explained that he was in solitary because there was so much press that it wouldn’t be safe to live with the general population. He only interacted with the guards when they brought food.
Holmes said he was keeping to a routine of exercise, sleep and eating. “I can do pacing in the cell. I can do jumping jacks and steps,” Holmes said.
He got about two hours outside the cell per day. He described the yard as an enclosed box with no grass.
Holmes said his pupils had been enlarged since he had been in jail. He thought it was because of medication.
Holmes said he didn’t mind being sent to Pueblo. The food was better, and he was staying in a bigger cell.
“It’s kind of a break from my normal routine,” Holmes said.
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3:48 p.m.
The psychiatrist asked Holmes what he needed to know about him.
Holmes at first said the question was broad, but Reid said that is how psychiatrists ask questions.
“I’m kind of shy, I guess,” Holmes said.
Holmes said he didn’t like talking to people, but he didn’t mind talking to his family and friends.
His family came to visit him in jail.
He then described how his parents had an “Ikea adventure” in San Diego, trying to order furniture. He said that was a story his parents told when they visited him. His parents first visited about eight months after he was arrested.
“Do you remember the day you were arrested?” Reid asked.
“Yeah, July 20, 2012,” Holmes said.
“I’m testing your memory.” Reid said.
A lawyer accompanied Holmes’ family on the visit.
The video was interrupted briefly after jurors said they could not hear and they wanted to dim the lights.
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4:00 p.m.
Reid asked if Holmes remembered anything else he and his parents talked about or how he felt seeing his parents.
“Yeah, it felt good seeing them,” Holmes said.
He did not remember specifics of their conversations. Aside from lawyers, they were his first visitors. He said it was an emotional time for him and his parents. He said his mother broke down when she was leaving but “she held up pretty good.” Holmes did not cry.
When asked what makes him cry, Holmes said “regrets.”
“Usually, it’s before I go to sleep,” he said. When asked what the regrets were about, he responded, “About the shooting.”
Holmes said he sometimes had trouble going to sleep, most likely because he was sedentary most of the time.
Holmes talked about a second visit with his parents. They talked about what was going on in San Diego and how they were doing. Holmes left San Diego in 2010 and he said his friends from home had moved across the country.
Holmes said he chose to go to graduate school in Colorado because of the interesting scenery — the Rocky Mountains — and the things to do. He also said the university professors’ research interested him.
Colorado also offered a training grant that provided more money than what the University of Chicago-Urbana had offered him.
In the year between college and starting graduate school, Holmes moved home with his parents and got a job in a vitamin factory where he coated pills. He worked there for three months. Holmes described it as a mediocre job because it was routine factory work with little novelty. He got the job through a temp agency because he wanted to get out of the house.
Holmes quit to start going on interviews at graduate schools. He had been offered a permanent position.
“I don’t think I could do that permanently,” Holmes said.
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4:09 p.m.
Holmes said it was OK living with his parents, but he preferred living independently where there were no “house rules.”
He was living in his sister’s old room.
Holmes went to undergraduate school at the University of California, Riverside. He said, “There’s not much of a river there.”
Holmes lived in an honors dorm during his first year. He thought the atmosphere was fun because he got to meet a bunch of people. He later moved into an off-campus apartment. He studied neuroscience.
He described dorm life as communal “so you get to know people in the dorm.” Holmes said it helped him meet new people.
His roommate was an entomologist who kept tarantulas in their room. He handled the spiders but didn’t like it.
Holmes said he went out to dinner with friends and sometimes partied. He also said there was lots of studying.
“There’s usually no way around not studying,” he said.
Holmes had a full-ride, so his tuition was covered. “My parents are really nice so they paid for the dorm and my food,” Holmes said.
He drove a sporty coupe model of Hyundai.
Holmes said he was not a huge drinker in college. “Only social,” he said. He never drank so much he passed out. “I’m part Irish,” he said.
Holmes said he had female friends in college, but he never had a girlfriend.
“Partying was like once a year,” Holmes said. “It wasn’t an everyday thing for me.”
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4:23 p.m.
Throughout the video, Holmes sat straight in his chair with his hands resting in his lap.
The psychiatrist asked about Holmes’ high school experience after they discussed his college years.
He went to a public high school.
“I enjoyed the school work and hanging out with friends,” Holmes said.
He particularly liked math and science, especially biology. He was not a physics fan.
Holmes finished high school with a 4.0 grade point average. He had a 3.9 average in college. He took AP history, computer science and science. He enjoyed studying European civilization more than U.S. history. He liked the monarchies and Louis the XIV.
He went out with friends that he had had since middle school. Mostly, his friends were boys, and they played video games together. They played Starcraft.
He ran cross country and played junior varsity soccer. He always played defense in soccer and had played since elementary school. He played intramural soccer his freshman year of college.
When asked if he had a girlfriend in high school, Holmes said no. “Some asked,” he said. He smiled when asked if he went out when asked. He said he had never been interested in dating men.
The psychiatrist asked Holmes about making a video in high school where he and other guys were playing military roles. Holmes said they were re-enacting “All Quiet on the Western Front” for a school project.
Holmes also did a three-month internship between high school and college at Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, Calif. He did programming for the institute. The psychiatrist had trouble understanding some of the complicated projects that Holmes worked on at the institute.
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4:37 p.m.
Reid, the psychiatrist, transitioned from asking about high school to probing Holmes about his family life.
Holmes’ family lived in a two-story Spanish-style villa in San Diego with a pool in the back yard. Holmes described it as a “cookie cutter” house.
His mother, Arlene Holmes, was a nurse. His father, Bob Holmes, worked in statistical analysis.
When asked to describe family life, Holmes answered, “Typical suburbia.”
They were happy and well-rounded, Holmes said. “Loving, too,” he said.
They talked to each other. There were hugs.
“I wasn’t really shy around my own family,” Holmes said.
Holmes described his sister as friendly and adventurous. She is into writing songs and playing the guitar. Their relationship was caring and supportive.
When they were younger, she always wanted to do what he was doing.
But when asked what his sister thought of her big brother, Holmes could not answer. He guessed she thought of him as a good big brother.
When Holmes moved away to college, they did not keep up with each other as much.
His sister visited with his parents in 2014. Holmes thought it was good to see her. She reacted normally to seeing him, Holmes said, but the psychiatrist pushed him to be more detailed.
“She was glad to see me. She wasn’t sad or anything,” Holmes said.
He said his mother seemed concerned about him. His father wasn’t showing concern and neither was his sister. He did not have much contact with his sister after college and that continued after his arrest.
“We kind of went in separate directions,” Holmes said.
“Do you love your sister?” Reid asked.
“Yep,” Holmes answered.
His sister lives in her own apartment in San Diego. She is not married and does not have children.
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4:42 p.m.
Reid asked Holmes what he thought his parents’ feelings were about his arrest and how it had impacted them.
“Negatively,” Holmes said.
But Reid pushed Holmes to put himself in their place and speculate about how they might feel.
“I guess it makes them sad,” he said.
When Holmes was asked about how his parents reacted to his arrest, he said they got him lawyers. But the psychiatrist wanted him to talk about their internal reactions. Holmes answered that they were sad and they had grief. He also said he would be sad if it was his son and he would want to help him as much as possible.
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5:02 p.m.
The psychiatrist then asked about the time period when Holmes’ family lived in Salinas, Calif. Holmes described it as suburban and said he played games such as capture the flag and basketball with friends.
The neighborhood was friendly and people knew each other.
He described his family as typical.
“I don’t know what typical is like,” Reid said. “Every family is different. Tell me what your family was like.”
Holmes said they were active and energetic. And everyone went about their day. They made pizzas. He would dig holes in the ground and make a homemade water park. “I would get a shovel and dig a hole in the ground then fill it up with water and jump in it,” he said. His little sister would sometimes dig the holes with him.
The Holmes family called him “Jimmy.” He started going by “James” in college. There was no real evolution. It just changed, Holmes said. His family still calls him “Jimmy.”
Reid asked if Holmes’ relationship with his parents changed over the years. He said he always had been close to his mother, and that hadn’t changed.
He said his relationship with his father, who coached his childhood soccer teams, was the same, too. He talked about going to the beach and getting ice cream with his father. His father helped him move to college. Holmes named those activities when asked about the three most important things his father had done for him.
Reid asked for the three most important things his mother has done for him. Holmes said they were writing letters, taking him on a Where’s Waldo adventure at a zoo and eating spaghetti together. They also did art projects such as papier-mache or tie-dying T-shirts with him and his sister.
Many of Reid’s questions centered on the mundane parts of life such as cooking frozen pizzas and making rice and chicken.
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5:23 p.m.
For Valentine’s Day, he cooked onion-crusted chicken for his girlfriend. They had ice cream for dessert.
The psychiatrist wanted to know more about Valentine’s Day with his girlfriend.
“I lit candles, good-smelling candles,” Holmes said. “Then we watched movies on Netflix.”
They watched Saturday Night Live and music videos.
Holmes said he likes techno music. He likes the rhythmic repetition and the keyboard and electronic sounds. “I usually listen to it privately,” Holmes said.
“It kinds of helps me focus. I used listen to it a lot when I was reading academic journals,” he said.
Holmes also said he enjoyed pop music on the radio. He named Katy Perry as a favorite. He also is a fan of electronic artist Tiesto. Holmes said he was not a dancer.
From there, Holmes began describing his romantic interests. He described two women he had tried to date as cheerful and bubbly.
He tried dating a girl in college but she was Persian and her family wanted her to be with someone from her ethnicity. He also dated a woman he met as a summer camp counselor in Glendale, Calif. They went to movies but “it was hard to get started,” Holmes said.
“I’ve heard wild things about those camp counselors,” Reid said.
They went back to a cabin after the movies but nothing really happened, Holmes said. They also rode to Hollywood with other camp counselors, who were going to a dance club. He and the woman just walked around, and he drove the group home because the others were drunk.
Holmes said the camp counselor woman would describe him as shy, kind, caring, funny and smart.
“You can’t sum up a person in five minutes,” Holmes said.
“I know. Give me some more,” Reid said.
“I can’t,” Holmes said.
“Give it a try,” Reid said.
“Caring, quiet,” Holmes said.
Holmes described the camp with horses, a swimming pool and a game room. They lived in cabins with the children. They sang them songs. There weren’t many camp fires because of the threat of wild fire.
One of the songs was a song about spaghetti and a song about a worm.
“You’re not going to make me sing it are you?” Holmes said with a laugh.
Holmes said the camp was stressful because he had to be social. “It wears me down having to take care of so many kids,” he said.
Holmes believed he was more aware of the responsibility of taking care of children after the experience. Most of the kids were underprivileged. Many had attention deficit disorder.
— — —
5:27 p.m.
Reid closed his first session with Holmes by setting up the schedule for following interviews.
They took a break for lunch and agreed to meet again at 2 p.m. Reid said he would interview Holmes again the next day at 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. Then they would discuss their meetings for the third day.
“Any questions you have for me before we break for lunch?” Reid asked.
“Nope,” Holmes said.
The first segment of the video was the last presentation for the day. The jury was dismissed at 5:25 p.m.
Jurors will continue watching the video interview on Friday.
Noelle Phillips: 303-954-1661, nphillips@denverpost.com or twitter.com/Noelle_Phillips
