Mailing draws lawyers’ scrutiny
helped make a presentation at the psychiatry department called “World of Warcraft: The Use of Archetypes in Psychotherapy.” World of Warcraft, a popular multiplayer role-playing video game, was among those Holmes played, according to a former roommate at UC Riverside.
In the motion released Friday, Holmes’ lawyers demanded access to the package seized from the university mailroom, the names of the investigators involved in testing it for explosives, the chain of custody, specifics related to the questioning of Holmes about the package and potential leaks to the media.
News outlets have cited unidentified sources in reporting that Holmes mailed a notebook to the medical campus before the July 20 attack, when a gunman sprayed a crowded Aurora theater that was showing the latest Batman movie. The notebook was said to contain drawings of stick figures being shot and a written description of a coming attack, according to Fox News, which first reported on the notebook’s existence. The FBI and other law enforcement agencies refused to comment on the reports.
University officials confirmed they had received a suspicious package on Monday, three days after the assault that left 12 dead and 58 injured — about a dozen of whom remained hospitalized Friday, five in critical condition.
The package was “immediately investigated and turned over to authorities within hours of delivery,” a university statement said — contradicting media reports that it had arrived before the attack but sat around unopened until Monday.
Arapahoe County Dist. Atty. Carol Chambers filed a motion Friday asking the judge to reject the public defenders’ request, denying authorities had leaked any information and noting as evidence the inaccuracy of media reports. Contrary to those reports, she said, the Police Department took custody of the package, not the FBI; one search warrant was needed, not two; and the package remained “secured and not examined.”
Chambers dismissed a report that Holmes had alerted investigators to the package as “just another inaccurate media report floating adrift in a sea of inaccurate media reports relating to this case.”
Investigators were still assembling evidence from the mailroom, she wrote, including video that may show the contents of the notebook and that therefore had been sealed.
Holmes’ lawyers demanded a hearing, which will begin at 9:30 a.m. Monday in Centennial, Colo., where Holmes was already expected to appear to face charges. District Judge William B. Sylvester plans to address both issues, court spokesman Jon Sarche said. Late Friday, Sylvester issued another order: Monday’s hearing also will address a motion filed by more than two dozen media outlets, including The Times, to expedite a hearing on unsealing Holmes’ court file.
Meantime, investigators sought to trace Holmes’ trail into the mountains north of Denver, searching for witnesses who may have seen him with firearms. In Hot Sulphur Springs, a town of 500 about 95 miles northwest of Denver, investigators stopped by a gun shop and hotel. Clark Branstetter, owner of C&M Guns, said he spoke with local sheriff’s deputies last Friday, followed by FBI and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agents on Monday and Tuesday.
“I just had all the agencies up here asking the same questions — did I see the gentleman?” he said of Holmes. “For some reason they suspect he was through here in June a few times. The ATF agent seems to think in June he even had the red hair.”
Nearby, the manager of the 14-room Canyon Motel in Hot Sulphur Springs said he also spoke with the FBI about Holmes this week. Agents had him search the motel database of past guests, Angus Simpson said, but Holmes was not among them.
Simpson, who has worked at the motel for two years, said he did not remember seeing Holmes.
“We’re a small mountain community,” he said, “and somebody with orange hair would stick out, other than in hunting season.”