He’s guilty in theater massacre

JAMES HOLMES, the Colorado madman who opened fire inside a packed movie theater in 2012, was found guilty Thursday on all charges — including first-degree murder.

The 27-year-old had pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to the massacre that killed 12 people and wounded 70 others during a midnight showing three years ago next week.

A jury deliberated about a day and a half on the charges before reaching its verdict, which triggered no outward reaction from the killer as he stood beside his attorney with his hands in his pockets.

Holmes now faces either life in prison without the possibility of parole or the death penalty. The state’s last execution, in 1997, was the first since capital punishment was reinstated in 1975.

Jurors were asked to return Wednesday to begin the sentencing phase of the trial, two days after the third anniversary of the attack.

Holmes’ charges included 24 counts of first-degree murder and 140 counts of attempted murder. The counts were doubled for his victims because each included an additional count of committing the acts with “an attitude of universal malice manifesting extreme indifference to the value of human life generally.” He was also found guilty of an explosives and weapons charge.

Holmes’ defense had argued that he suffered schizophrenia and was not in control when he dyed his hair red like the Joker, put on a gas mask and stormed the Aurora theater on July 20, 2012, with an assault rifle, shotgun and pistol. His victims were watching a showing of the Batman movie “The Dark Knight Rises” when the Hollywood violence was replaced with real carnage.

The victims included two active-duty servicemen, a single mom, and an aspiring broadcaster who had survived a mall shooting in Toronto. Several died shielding friends or loved ones. The youngest to die was a 6-year-old girl whose mother also suffered a miscarriage and was paralyzed in the attack.