Attorneys for accused theater shooter James Holmes on Thursday said that prosecutors aren’t sharing evidence with them quickly enough for them to conduct their own investigation into Holmes’ mental health.
“We as a defense team cannot begin to examine the nature or depth of Mr. Holmes’ mental illness until we receive full disclosure,” said defense attorney Daniel King.
King said that so far the defense team has received 2,677 pages of documents from the prosecution. Most of those are written reports by police officers. King said the prosecution has not yet shared any photographs, recordings of interviews or expert reports.
Prosecutor Rich Orman said police investigators are still working to interview witnesses and prepare the reports from those interviews. Prosecutors said hundreds of people must still be interviewed or reinterviewed in the case.
“There is a large queue of information to be typed up,” Orman said.
The statements came during the third hearing for Holmes, accused of murdering 12 people and wounding 58 others in an attack at the Century Aurora 16 early the morning of July 20.
Holmes was arrested outside the theater and faces 24 counts of murder and 116 counts of attempted murder in the assault, which was carried out during the premiere of the new Batman movie, “The Dark Knight Rises.”
Thursday’s hearing was scheduled after a consortium of news media outlets filed motions seeking to have the court file unsealed.
Judge William Sylvester did not issue a ruling.
Attorneys for both the prosecution and the defense argued against unsealing the file, saying that doing so would hurt Holmes’ ability to receive a fair trial and investigators’ ability to complete their work.
“It is much too premature at this junction to unseal the documents,” said prosecutor Jacob Edson.
The discussion of fairness for Holmes was upsetting to some victims’ family members who attended the hearing.
“They kept talking about fairness in there? C’mon,” said Shane Medek, whose sister, Cayla, was killed in the shooting. “Where’s my fairness? Where’s my sister’s fairness?”
Holmes appeared in the courtroom wearing a maroon jail jumpsuit, the outline of a protector vest was visible under the jumpsuit. He looked at the judge and attorneys as they spoke but showed no expression. He did not speak during the hearing.
Medek said he kept trying to look Holmes in the eyes during the hearing, but could not catch his glance. “He’s just such a coward. He wouldn’t look me in the eye.”
Medek later said he thought their eyes did meet at some point: “I’m glad he knows I will be here everytime.”
The hearing was disrupted when a woman in back stood up and asked to address the court. She claimed to have information that was “vital to the defense” but said Holmes’ attorneys would not speak with her.
The judge said that he couldn’t force the attorneys to talk to her and asked her not to interupt the court again. She was lead out of the courtroom by a sheriff’s deputy. Medek said “it’s like a circus in here.”
The news media’s motion, if successful, would give the public a much greater look into the legal proceedings against Holmes. Currently, almost all the documents in Holmes’ case file — as well as the record that shows what documents have been filed — are closed to the public. The only exceptions are several documents that Sylvester, who is handling Holmes’ case, has said can be public.
The arrangement has produced some odd moments, such as last month when a motion by Holmes’ attorneys that revealed Holmes had been seeing a psychiatrist was made public, then altered four days later to redact the information about the psychiatrist.
The news outlets — including The Denver Post — argue in their motion that the public deserves to know more information about a mass shooting that shook the community.
“This status quo violates the public’s constitutional right of access to records of criminal prosecutions, and undermines our nation’s firm commitment to the transparency and public accountability of the criminal justice system,” the media’s motion argues.
John Ingold: 303-954-1068, jingold@denverpost.com or twitter.com/john_ingold
