Jury: Theater Gunman Eligible For Death Penalty
CENTENNIAL, Colo. (CBS4)- The jury in the theater shooting trial has decided that the gunman is eligible for the death penalty.
Jurors decided on Thursday afternoon that there were four of the five aggravating factors present when James Holmes executed the attack.
Holmes was convicted one week ago of killing 12 people and injuring 70 others in the July 20, 2012 shooting. Veronica Moser-Sullivan was one of his victims. She was just 6 years old.
LIVE VIDEO: Watch The Trial Live At CBS4's Theater Shooting Trial Special Section
The five aggravating factors the jury deliberated on were: that he killed two or more people, intentionally killed a child, created grave risk to others, acted in a depraved manner and ambushed victims.
The jury did not find that Holmes intentionally killed a child in the attack.
Jurors only had to find one of those aggravating factors valid in order to make Holmes eligible for the death penalty.
Prosecutors said they proved several of the required "aggravating factors" in these murders beyond a reasonable doubt: That Holmes harmed an outsized number of victims when he opened fire at the midnight Batman movie premiere; that he killed a child, and that the attack was particularly heinous.
They said Holmes wanted to murder as many as he could in the audience of more than 400 people but failed to kill more than 12 because his assault rifle jammed.
Jurors sought clarification on one point Thursday from the judge, who told them that the fact that a child under 12 was killed doesn't by itself qualify as an aggravating factor; prosecutors must have proved that Holmes intended to kill the child. Jurors then asked to review some videotaped testimony.
Jurors will now move onto the second phase of the sentencing. That phase could take weeks. The defense will lead the next phase, trying to show that his mental illness and other "mitigating factors" make it wrong to execute him.
Jurors would then deliberate for a second time, deciding whether the extent of his mental problems outweighs the lifelong suffering Holmes caused. If so, the trial would end there, with a life sentence instead of the death penalty.
