When Juror # 706 asked to have a personal matter conference in the courtroom, we were shocked out of our Thursday morning blahs. Of course we鈥檝e heard the word 鈥渄iarrhea鈥� before. But in all fairness, maybe never out loud in a courtroom. 706 said she鈥檇 had her problem since 2 am and warned she might need to raise her hand to leave.
Good thing 706 is on the end of the row closest to the door.
Another juror came in crying and another got sick at the end of a long-awaited Friday afternoon. They were holding on by the thinnest of threads to mend on the weekend so they could start again Monday.
They鈥檙e like George Washington鈥檚 troops, bravely fighting through the most uncomfortable of battles for a greater cause.
I鈥檓 telling you this because no other publication would dare publish the bizarre moments seen and heard in the courtroom which is watching the unfolding events of the Batman movie theater shooting trial.
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Five weeks in, we鈥檝e gotten to know each other very well. We say good morning and guzzle big gulps of morning coffee and styrofoam cups of cafeteria coke.
By the end of the week, even common enemies who relish squaring off were laughing at each other鈥檚 jokes. Public defender Dan King made fun of his shiny silver Ricky Martin suit. 鈥淒oes that thing come with batteries?鈥� asked his nemesis, the D.A. There were much needed breaks from embarrassing moments. like when the court sound system didn鈥檛 work as we waited high on caffeine to hear from the killer for the first time. When the psychiatric videos showed a picture with no sound, the prosecutor tried to look relaxed and the judge said, 鈥淗opefully we can get some non-lawyers to figure it out.鈥� From around the corner, a millenial with a briefcase full of wires came to the technical rescue.
All of this while the killer sits swiveling back and forth in his chair, his psychiatric videos minutes from appeasing a salivating twitter fan club.
Across the aisle, a sparse number of victims鈥� families brought extra reading along so that they had something to do besides stare at the person who has admitted he killed or injured people they loved in a movie theater on July 20th, 2012.
Today we learned trustees in the Arapahoe jail call the defendant baby killer when they come to clean out his cell.
The shooter had a serious girlfriend with whom he wanted to start a family in the spring of 2012. They broke up around St. Patrick鈥檚 Day 6 months before the shooting, got together again, and in May, it was over. Did you miss her? asked the court 鈥� appointed psychiatrist. 鈥淣o.鈥�
That鈥檚 because he had already moved on鈥n May, he noticed another woman鈥檚 legs in class and texted her about them. Soon the two were on a hike together. After just one date, James Holmes decided that he would distance himself away from this new prospect,鈥滺illary,鈥� so that she wouldn鈥檛 be associated with a murderer. A huge timeline clue for those who have stopped paying attention.
Already, JH had bought a stun gun. Then a hand gun. A shotgun followed and a semi-automatic rifle after that. Then for good measure, another hand gun. This latest was a .23. The other a .22, which the defendant would disassemble as he sat in his one-person apartment. He got to know his guns, he said. He told the psychiatrist he bought them all, and the ammunition with no questions asked, even though he was starting to have serious mental health problems and was being seen by at least two CU school psychiatrists.
Before July 20, 2012, the shooter worked with Mexican orphan children. He gardened at his mother鈥檚 church. He was a 4.0 student. He loved Katy Perry, Of Mice and Men,the Big Bang Theory. And when he was a camp counselor, he sang-along to 鈥淥n Top of Spaghetti.鈥� How in the world could we have stopped such a fine young man?