CENTENNIAL, Colo. (USA TODAY) – A judge on Wednesday sentenced the Aurora theater shooter to life in prison without parole plus 3,318 consecutive years, ending a three-year saga that began when James Holmes walked into a darkened auditorium on a hot July night and opened fire.
"Sheriff, get the defendant out of my courtroom, please," Judge Carlos Samour Jr. said as applause broke out in the courtroom.
A jury earlier this month decided Holmes would receive a life sentence after members were unable to unanimously decide to have him executed for the 12 murders committed at a suburban Denver movie theater on July 20, 2012. Samour was legally required to pronounce 12 life sentences for the murders, along with punishment for other crimes of which Holmes was convicted, including attempted murder of other movie-goers and booby-trapping his nearby apartment to draw away first responders. The sentence was the maximum Samour could give, and the longest ever handed down in Colorado, prosecutors said.
Holmes showed no reaction as Samour spoke for more than an hour before pronouncing sentence for the attack on the theater showing a midnight premiere of the Batman movie The Dark Knight Rises. Addressing family members and the public who were disappointed Holmes wasn't sentenced to death, Samour pointed out that the case ended Wednesday, rather than spending the next decade in appeals, forcing survivors to be repeatedly re-victimized.
"The defendant will never be a free man again, ever," Samour said. "The place of death, generally speaking, has been determined. The only question that remains unanswered is the time of death."
Holmes told a court-appointed psychiatrist that he attacked the theater to improve his self worth, and that he expected people would remember his name. Wednesday's hearing was the third and final day of the formal sentencing phase that drew tearful memories from survivors recounting how the shooting updended their lives, stole their loved ones and left many sleepless and struggling with PTSD even three years later.
Speaking in court on Tuesday, Arlene Holmes said her son has expressed remorse for his crimes: "... but his ability to express his emotions with his face or verbally has been impaired by disease and medication, and we know that is very, very hard for people to see," she said.
Holmes spent months accumulating weapons and ammunition and practiced shooting before he donned all-black body armor and stepped through the auditorium's emergency exit. Testimony from survivors painted a heart-rending picture of an evening filled with terror as Holmes, his hair dyed orange, tossed a tear gas canister toward the exits and then began shooting terrified movie-goers. Veteran police officers broke down in tears as they testified of their efforts to save victims, in many cases driving them to nearby hospitals in their patrol cars.
Samour said the former life had knocked down the PhD neuroscience student — he was withdrawing from the University of Colorado and had broken up with his girlfriend — but instead of getting back up like a normal person, Holmes chose a different path, a path to quit life and take others with him.
"He was at a fork in the road, if you will. Had he taken one road, all of those people in that theater would have enjoyed that movie … would have gone on with their lives," Samour said. "But he decided instead to take the other road. He chose to take the road that led him into that theater and kill and injure so many people."
After sentencing, District Attorney George Brauchler reiterated his belief that seeking the death penalty was the right decision, and rejected the idea Holmes has expressed any kind of remorse.
Holmes' attorneys said on Tuesday that they will not appeal.
