Suspect confided a desire to kill: prosecutors
Conversation with a classmate occurred four months before, court records allege
DENVER — The man accused of opening fire on a Colorado movie theatre July 20 told a classmate he wanted to kill people four months before the shooting, newly filed court records allege.
Prosecutors made the allegation in a motion released Friday seeking access to James Holmes’ records from the University of Colorado Denver’s neuroscience graduate program.
Holmes “had conversations with a classmate about wanting to kill people in March 2012, and that he would do so when his life was over,” lawyers for the state wrote. That alleged conversation would have occurred at roughly the same time that Aurora Police Chief Dan Oates said Holmes began receiving “a high volume of deliveries” at his home and at the university. Authorities have not said what those packages contained, but they said he ordered thousands of rounds of ammunition on the Internet.
The prosecution’s allegation is the earliest report of a possible threat from Holmes, who opened fire on a midnight showing of The Dark Knight Rises in Aurora, Colo. Twelve people were killed and 58 were wounded.
Prosecutors said Holmes left the neuroscience program in June after also making unspecified threats to a professor and failing his year- end final, both in that month.
Holmes’ lawyers argue that prosecutors should have no access to his student records. It’s not clear whether Holmes’ lawyers filed a response to the alleged threats. Most filings in the case are sealed and none of the defence filings released Friday by the judge address the alleged threats.
The prosecution motion was filed last week but only released Friday, a day after a court hearing in which prosecutors first asserted that Holmes had made threats. They didn’t disclose any details about the threats in court.
A gag order has been issued in the case. Prosecutors argued that gaining access to the school records would establish a motive by showing what Holmes hoped to accomplish at CU and the “dissatisfaction with what occurred in his life that led to this.”