CENTENNIAL, Colo. -- The suspect in
the U.S. theater rampage that killed 12 in one of the worst mass
shootings in the country's history smiled and glanced around the
courtroom Thursday, a marked difference from his dazed, silent
appearances in the past. The bright orange hair was gone and was now
short and brown.
Prosecutors gave up their
efforts to get access to a notebook by the suspect, James Holmes, that
they think details a violent attack.
Holmes
has been charged with 142 counts, including murder and attempted murder,
in the June 20 attack at a midnight screening of the latest Batman
movie. Fifth-eight people were wounded in the shooting as the gunman
roamed the darkened theater.
Defense attorneys have said Holmes is mentally ill.
Prosecutors
had wanted access to the notebook sent by Holmes to a university
psychiatrist that purportedly contains descriptions of a violent attack.
But a judge on Aug. 30 ruled that they could not disprove a
doctor-patient relationship between Holmes and University of Colorado
psychiatrist Lynne Fenton.
Prosecutors had
argued that the notebook is fair game because Holmes wasn't going to be
undergoing therapy because he planned to be dead or in prison after the
rampage.
But on Thursday, Deputy District
Attorney Rich Orman told the judge that prosecutors didn't want to delay
proceedings for Holmes.
If mental health
becomes an issue, Orman said, Holmes would have to waive any
doctor-patient privilege and prosecutors would gain access to the
notebook.
Holmes was a graduate student in the
neuroscience program at the University of Colorado. Prosecutors said
Holmes did poorly on a key exam and withdrew on June 10 while he was
stockpiling guns, ammunition and body armor ahead of the shooting. His
apartment was found booby-trapped after the shooting.
Associated Press