Prosecutors: Holmes Told Classmate of Wish to Kill

He made general threat months before shooting, they say
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 24, 2012 3:54 PM CDT
Prosecutors: Holmes Told Classmate of Wish to Kill
This courtroom sketch shows James Holmes in court on Aug. 9.   (AP Photo/Bill Robles, Pool)

Prosecutors in the Dark Knight shooting spree continue to make the case that James Holmes was sending signals well before the Aurora massacre, reports the Denver Post and AP. In newly unsealed court documents, they allege that Holmes:

  • Told a fellow student at the University of Colorado in March that he wanted to kill people "and would do so when his life was over."
  • Threatened a professor in June, then got banned from campus. (As reported yesterday, he also failed an oral exam in neuroscience around the time this threat would have been made.)
  • He then "began a detailed and complex plan to obtain firearms, ammunition, a tear-gas grenade, body armor, a gas mask and a ballistic helmet, which were used in the commission of the murders and attempted murders," the prosecutors write.

A university spokesperson denies that Holmes got banned from campus. She says he withdrew from the neuroscience program of his own accord, and his key-card access to buildings was shut off accordingly. The Denver newspaper sees the outline of the case shaping up: Prosecutors will depict the shooting "as a revenge plot by a young man who began failing in his studies," while Holmes' lawyers will likely use an insanity defense. (More James Holmes stories.)

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