Suspect was receiving care

Lawyers confirm alleged movie killer saw a psychiatrist.

DENVER — The former graduate student accused in the deadly Colorado movie theater shooting was being treated by a psychiatrist at the university where he studied, a revelation that adds to suspicions that his life was in turmoil in the year before the rampage.

Attorneys for James Holmes, 24, made the disclosure in a court motion Friday as they sought to discover the source of leaks to some media outlets that he sent the psychiatrist a package containing a notebook with descriptions of an attack.

The motion said the leak jeopardized Holmes’ right to a fair trial and violated a judge’s gag order.

The lawyers added that the package contained communications between Holmes and his psychiatrist that should be shielded from public view. The document describes Holmes as a “psychiatric pa- tient” of Dr. Lynne Fenton.

The motion did not reveal when Holmes began seeing Fenton or whether he was diagnosed with a mental illness. Legal analysts expect Holmes’ attorneys to use an insanity defense at trial. He is to be arraigned Monday.

Calls to Holmes’ lawyer and the state public defender’s office were not immediately returned, nor was a message left with Fenton’s office. The University of Colorado’s website identifies her as the medical director of the school’s Student Mental Health Services.

A spokeswoman for the Arapahoe County prosecutor’s office declined to comment.

In the week since the attack, few details have emerged about Holmes’ life since June 2011, when he enrolled in a prestigious doctoral program in neuroscience at the University of Colorado-Denver Anschutz medical campus. He left without explanation in June.

University officials have refused to disclose much more about Holmes, citing an order from the judge barring it from releasing information that would “impede an ongoing investigation.” Staff, professors and classmates have been mum about his life at the school.

Holmes’ appearance at his first court hearing on Monday stunned the victims’ families and fueled speculation about the state of his mental health. His hair dyed a shocking comic-book shade of orange-red, he looked sleepy and, at times, inattentive.

Prosecutors said they didn’t know if he was being medicated.

The motion Friday, however, was the first confirmation from the defense that Holmes was seeing a psychiatrist and that he had sent a package to the doctor.

The package was seized by authorities Monday after it was found in the university mailroom.

Holmes spent a year in the university’s intimate, competitive neuroscience program before dropping out three days after taking a year-end final, university officials have said.

The shooting, at a July 20 showing of the Batman film “The Dark Knight Rises,” left 12 people dead and dozens more hurt.