AURORA, Colo. - Wearing orange-red hair and looking dazed, the man
accused of going on a deadly shooting rampage at the opening of the new
Batman movie appeared Monday in court for the first time.
With his eyes at times downcast, James Holmes sat in maroon jailhouse jumpsuit as the judge advised him of the case.
Holmes, 24, has been held in solitary
confinement at an Arapahoe County detention facility since Friday.
Holmes is being held on suspicion of first-degree murder, and he could
also face additional counts of aggravated assault and weapons
violations.
Authorities have disclosed that he is refusing to
cooperate and that it could take months to learn what prompted the
horrific attack on midnight moviegoers at a Batman film premiere.
Eighteenth Judicial District Attorney
Carol Chambers said Monday her office is considering pursuing the death
penalty against Holmes. She said a decision will be made in consultation
with victims' families.
Holmes has been assigned a public defender, and Aurora Police Chief Dan
Oates
said the former doctoral student has "lawyered up" since his arrest
early Friday, following the shooting at an Aurora theater that left 12
dead and 58 wounded, some critically.
"He's not talking to us," the chief said.
Holmes has been held without bond at the lockup in Centennial, Colo., south of
Denver and about 13 miles from the Aurora theater.
His hearing is at the same complex,
and security there was tight early Monday. Uniformed sheriff's deputies
were stationed outside, and deputies were positioned on the roofs of
both court buildings at the Arapahoe County Justice Center.
Police have said Holmes began buying guns at
Denver-area
stores nearly two months before Friday's shooting and that he received
at least 50 packages in four months at his home and at school.
Holmes' apartment was filled with trip wires, explosive devices and unknown liquids, requiring police,
FBI
officials and bomb squad technicians to evacuate surrounding buildings
while spending most of Saturday disabling the booby traps.
Investigators found a Batman mask
inside Holmes' apartment after they finished clearing the home, a law
enforcement official close to the investigation said Sunday on condition
of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the news media.
Officials at the University of
Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus were looking into whether Holmes used
his position in a graduate program to collect hazardous materials, but
that disclosure was one of the few it has made three days after the
massacre. It remained unclear whether Holmes' professors and other
students at his 35-student Ph.D. program noticed anything unusual about
his behavior.
His reasons for quitting the program
in June also remained a mystery. Holmes recently took an intense oral
exam that marks the end of the first year. University officials would
not say if he passed, citing privacy concerns.
Amid the continuing investigation of
Holmes and his background, Sunday was a day for healing and remembrance
in Aurora, with the community holding a prayer vigil and
President Barack Obama arriving to visit with families of the victims.
Obama
said he told the families that "all of America and much of the world is
thinking about them." He met with them at the University of Colorado
Hospital in Aurora, which treated 23 of the people injured in the mass
shooting; 10 remain there, seven hurt critically.
