How Could You? Hall of Shame-James Holmes UPDATED
This will be an archive of heinous actions by those involved in child welfare, foster care and adoption. We forewarn you that these are deeply disturbing stories that may involve sex abuse, murder, kidnapping and other horrendous actions.
From Aurora Colorado, everyone on Earth knows that 24-year-old James Holmes allegedly planned and carried out a movie theater massacre in the early morning hours of July 20, 2012 during the premiere of the third in the Batman trilogy: The Dark Knight Rises. Currently it stands that 12 are dead :Jessica N. Ghawi, 24; Veronica Moser-Sullivan, 6; John T. Larimer, 27; Alexander J. Boik, 18; Jesse E. Childress, 29;Jonathan T. Blunk, 26; Rebecca Ann Wingo, 32; Alex M. Sullivan, 27; Gordon W. Cowden, 51; Micayla C. Medek, 23; Alexander C. Teves, 24; Matthew R. McQuinn, 27. The number of injured stands at 58.
What people may not know (as only a few articles have mentioned it) is that reports are that James Holmes was adopted. Sigh.
“He slipped into the midnight premiere of “The Dark Knight Rises” through an emergency exit door, armed with three guns and wearing a ballistic helmet, gas mask and body shields. He tossed two hissing gas canisters and calmly walked up the aisle firing at moviegoers.”
[Mercury News 7/21/12 by Karen E. Crummy/Denver Post]
James, a neuroscience PhD student who recently had dropped out of the program lived in an apartment. He booby-trapped it forcing neighbors to evacuate just hours after the massacre.
On July 25, 2012 ,”Neighbors of the accused Colorado theater shooter are being allowed back home after investigators spent days combing the apartment of James Holmes.
Residents were called Wednesday evening and told they were free to return home. Their three-story brick building was evacuated Friday, hours after the theater shooting that killed 12 and wounded 58. Investigators said Holmes had rigged his entire apartment with a complex series of booby traps that took authorities days to dismantle.
A few residents ducked under yellow crime scene tape flanking the building Wednesday evening, carrying shopping bags stuffed with groceries and clothes while crews repaired a door damaged during the investigation.
The ground was still littered with shattered glass from Holmes’ apartment, and a work crew was hammering plywood over the windows. Residents declined to comment.”
Neighbors Of James Holmes, Accused Aurora, Colo. Movie Theater Shooter, Allowed To Return Home
[Huffington Post 7/25/12]
Adoption Briefly Mentioned on July 24, 2012
“Demented “Batman” massacre suspect James Holmes looked scared, bug-eyed, and completely spaced out beneath his bizarre, Joker-inspired mop of red curls at his first court appearance yesterday.[July 23, 2012]
“You’re not such a tough guy now!” seethed Tom Teves, who lost his 24-year-old son, Alex, in last week’s Colorado massacre, allegedly at the hands of Holmes.
The sickened Teves watched Holmes from a front-row seat in the courtroom — furious that he has shown no remorse.
David Sanchez, whose daughter Katie Medely, 21, was in a hospital about to give birth as her wounded husband, Caleb, 23, fought for his life after being shot in the head at the Aurora theater, spat, “He looks demonic. There’s something wrong with that man.”
Holmes, 24, didn’t speak during his 10-minute appearance in the Arapahoe County courthouse.
As prosecutors said they were still determining the charges to bring — in what could be a death-penalty case — he stared either straight ahead or into his lap with a look of apprehension.
But his eyes popped out and he appeared shocked when the judge told him he was facing murder charges.
A father of one of the dead victims told The Post that cops revealed to him that Holmes was adopted. Police said the San Diego-area couple who raised him are not cooperating in the probe.
“They’re not talking to us right now,” Aurora Police Chief Daniel Oates told ABC News of Robert and Arlene Holmes, 61 and 58.
Holmes’ family lawyer, Lisa Damiani, yesterday said the couple’s “hearts go out to the victims and their families.”
She refused to answer questions about Holmes and his relationship with his family. But when asked whether his parents stand by him, Damiani told reporters in San Diego, “Yes, they do. He’s their son.”
“TMZ.com said the loveless sicko had been spurned by three women on an online sex site since July 5. And he was about to get booted from his campus housing because he had dropped out of the University of Colorado.
A disgusted jail worker who served Holmes breakfast and lunch just hours after the massacre told The Post that the fiend didn’t lose any sleep — or his appetite — over what he’d just allegedly done.
The worker said Holmes wolfed down Frosted Flakes, a carton of milk and a blueberry muffin for breakfast, then slept like a baby.
“I’m thinking this just happened after midnight, and at 11 a.m., he’s taking a nap? I’m thinking, ‘Wake your ass up, dummy,’ ” he said.
“Holmes, a brilliant but painfully shy loner, had been pursuing a doctorate in neuroscience at UC’s Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora before suddenly dropping out in June.
He had been given a $26,000 stipend from the National Institutes of Health, and investigators want to know if any of that cash went to purchase guns or explosives.”
Victims & kin stare down ‘Batman’ psycho in court
[New York Post 7/24/12 by Jeane MacIntosh, Don Kaplan and Bob Fredericks]
Notebook Sent to School Detailing Massacre?
“Accused movie theater shooter James Holmes may have mailed a notebook to his school detailing his plans to carry out a massacre, sources say.
The notebook that is believed to have been written by Holmes was mailed to the University of Colorado, where Holmes had been a student until dropping out last month, ABC News has learned.
Fox News reported that the notebook was mailed to a specific psychiatrist at the university and that it contained “full details about how he was going to kill people, drawings of what he was going to do in it, and drawings and illustrations of the massacre.”
There are conflicting reports on whether the notebook arrived at the university before or after the massacre, but it was found on Monday during a search of the mailroom, ABC News learned today.”
The university has not confirmed the existence of the note, but issued a statement saying that the “Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus can confirm that the suspicious package discovered at the Facilities Services building on Monday, July 23, 2012, was delivered to the campus by the United States Postal Service that same day.”
Discovery of the package prompted the evacuation of the building for about 90 minutes starting at 12:26 p.m., the school said.
The school also refused to say whether Holmes was seeing a psychiatrist. Campus officials have insisted they handled the Holmes case correctly.
“To the best of our knowledge, we did everything we should have done,” the statement read.
The detail of the mailed notebook adds to other information emerging about Holmes’ troubles at the University of Colorado, where he spiraled down from a successful and apparently happy student to an accused mass murderer in a matter of months. He reportedly struggled academically in the PhD program he enrolled in last fall.
On June 7, hours after he took a key oral exam which, according to ABC News affiliate KMGH, he failed, Holmes went out to a sporting goods store and bought a high-powered rifle, adding it to his growing arsenal.
Three days later he withdrew from the PhD program with no explanation.”
Holmes will be arraigned July 30 in Aurora District Court.
James Holmes May Have Sent Notebook Detailing Shooting Plans to School
[ABC News 7/25/12 by Dan Harris and Colleen Curry]
Good Synopis of what we know about James Holmes so far:
“James Holmes, the 24-year-old accused of gunning down dozens of people in a Colorado movie theater last week, went from being a “quiet” doctoral student to the most infamous man in America.
Here’s what we know about how he might have gotten there:
- Holmes was adopted as a child and raised in San Diego, Calif., the New York Post reported, citing the father of a victim, who had in turn said he got that information from the police.
- His mother is a registered nurse and his father is a senior scientist at FICO, the company that provides credit scores, according to local paper U-T San Diego.
- He has a younger sister, Chris, according to USA Today.
- His elementary classmates remember Holmes as a well-behaved kid who excelled at computer programming and sports. He got “picked for flag football first, because he was fast,” one classmate told The Californian.
- He dabbled in soccer and cross-country in high school. One classmate said he had a small group of friends who played video games and told the New York Times he was “nice and sweet.”
- College academics came easily to Holmes, who studied at the University of California. One former classmate told the Washington Post: “He didn’t even have to take notes or anything. He would just show up to class, sit there, and around test time he would always get an A.”
- In college, he worked as a camp counselor for children. He was in charge of about 10 campers. One of his former coworkers told TMZ he was a nice guy who hung out with the rest of the staff and never gave anyone alarm.
- In the summer of 2006, he scored an internship at the prestigious Salk Institute that may have raised some red flags. His supervisor told the Christian Science Monitor he was an unusually bad intern, “odd” and “stubborn.”
- But he still graduated from University of California at the top of his class, according to USA Today.
- After that, he enrolled in a neuroscience doctoral program at University of Colorado.
- Experts have suggested he might have had a psychotic break after failing to meet the expectations of his father, who has a degree from Stanford and a successful career, the Daily Mail reported.
- From here, the picture gets more disturbing: Holmes was always alone, according to reports from his neighbors in Colorado cited by The New York Times.
- He blared techno music beginning at midnight, playing the same song over and over, a neighbor told the Huffington Post.
- He started to show interest in joining a gun range, but was rejected after the leader heard his bizarre, “demonic” voicemail message.
- He also allegedly slept with several prostitutes, even reviewing them for a website, TMZ reported. One woman who claimed Holmes was her client said he was “really nice.”
- Holmes also may have had profiles on AdultFriendFinder and Match.com. The profiles said people noticed his “soul-penetrating eyes” and asked if women would visit him in prison.
- Weeks before the shooting, he failed an important exam at University of Colorado and bought one of the assault rifles he’d allegedly use in the shooting.
- He allegedly spent months building an arsenal, possibly from the $26,000 in federal grants he received for graduate school.
- Now, reports have emerged that Holmes sent a notebook full of his plans last week to a University of Colorado psychiatrist. It went unopened until Monday.
- Just two days before the shooting, he drank at a local bar. Another patron told KCNC-TV in Denver he seemed intelligent and had a swagger.
- When he went into the theater, witnesses said he morphed into a monster, selecting his victims. “He would shout, ‘What are you doing? I said stand up!’ And he would pick people up. I saw him stand over someone. I just see hair and him holding the shirt and — boom!”, 21-year-old Stephanie Davies told the New York Post.
- Yet Holmes put up no fight in the parking lot and told authorities his apartment was booby-trapped. Police found a complex system of explosives and a Batman mask in the apartment.
- Since he was arrested, Holmes’ behavior has been bizarre. He used police evidence bags as hand puppets, acted dazed in court despite not being on medication and won’t stop spitting at corrections officers, the local ABC affiliate in Denver reported.
- There’s speculation he’ll go for an insanity defense. But court analysts have predicted that it will flop in court considering the
How James Holmes Went From Shy Nerd To Accused Cold-Blooded Killer
[Business Insider 7/25/12 by Ashley Lutz]
REFORM Puzzle Piece
Update: Charges were brought on James on Monday July 30, 2012. His next hearing is August 9, 2012. Also, Ashley Moser, the mother of the 6-year-old girl who was killed, has miscarried.; thus, adding to the death toll.
Charges include the following: 24 counts of murder; 116 counts of attempted murder ; one count of possession of explosives; and one count of committing a crime of violence.
“Holmes, 24, appeared just as dazed as he did in his first court appearance last week, but at one point exchanged a few words with one of his attorneys in the packed courtroom. He was not expected to enter pleas on Monday. He ultimately could verbally enter a plea, or his attorneys could enter it for him.”
“Unlike Holmes’ first court appearance July 23, Monday’s hearing was not televised. At the request of the defense, District Chief Judge William Sylvester barred video and still cameras from the hearing, saying expanded coverage could interfere with Holmes’ right to a fair trial.”
“Investigators said Holmes began stockpiling gear for his assault four months ago and bought his weapons in May and June, well before the shooting spree just after midnight during a showing of the Batman film “The Dark Knight Rises.”
The four guns retrieved from the shooting were purchased legally at three Colorado gun stores between May 22 and July 6, CBS News correspondent Bob Orr reports. A federal law enforcement source told CBS News that Holmes spent $15,000 fortifying his arsenal online. Authorities found a shipping label from BulkAmmo.com in a dumpster near Holmes’ apartment, the source said. EBay was the vendor Holmes used to purchase some body armor, the source said.”
James Eagan Holmes charged with murder, attempted murder from Colo. rampage
[CBS News 7/30/12]
Update 2: James was banned from University of Colorado Denver campus prior to the rampage.
“The former graduate student accused in a deadly mass shooting at a Colorado movie theater had failed a key exam six weeks before the rampage, made threats and was banned from his college, prosecutors said Thursday.
University of Colorado Denver spokeswoman Jacque Montgomery later disputed that James Holmes was banned from campus but confirmed that a criminal background check was done on him before the July 20 attack.
She said a court gag order prevented her from discussing who requested the check, who performed it, and who saw the results.
Montgomery’s statement was believed to be the first explicit public confirmation that a check had been done on Holmes’ background before the shootings.
Montgomery did say that campus Police Chief Doug Abraham was referring to that background check when he said at a July 23 news conference that Holmes had only a minor infraction on his record.
She said Holmes’ access to restricted areas on campus was canceled because he left his program in June, not because of threats.
Prosecutors made their new claims Thursday against Holmes in their effort to persuade a judge to allow them access to 100 pages of education records subpoenaed from the university, where Holmes had been a neuroscience doctoral candidate.
The university turned over the documents last week, but Holmes’ lawyers moved to keep them sealed.
Chief Deputy District Attorney Karen Pearson told the judge that Holmes was stockpiling ammunition, body armor and explosives at his apartment and at the university while he was flunking out. Gaining access to the records, she argued, would establish motive by showing what Holmes hoped to accomplish at CU and the “dissatisfaction with what occurred in his life that led to this.”
The judge said he would rule in time for the next hearing in the case, scheduled for Aug. 30.”
Holmes made threats before Colorado rampage, prosecutors say
[Fox News 8/23/12 by The Associated Press]
Update 3: ”
Prosecutors on Aug. 30 suffered a setback in obtaining the notebook when Arapahoe County District Judge William B. Sylvester ruled that they could not disprove a doctor-patient relationship between suspect James Holmes and University of Colorado psychiatrist Lynne Fenton.
Defense attorneys say Holmes is mentally ill and sought Fenton’s help. Sylvester rejected prosecutor arguments that a doctor-patient relationship ended June 11, the last time Fenton saw Holmes. Holmes has been charged with 142 counts including murder and attempted murder stemming from the July 20 attack at an Aurora theater that killed 12 and wounded 58 others.
A court register of case actions indicated Wednesday that prosecutors are seeking now to add 10 more counts against Holmes and amend 17 others, but it didn’t disclose details and a judge has issued a gag order limiting what information lawyers can publicly disclose in the case.
In their quest to obtain Holmes’ notebook, prosecutors are arguing that it and its contents are fair game because Holmes wasn’t to undergo therapy because he planned to be dead or in prison after the shootings rampage at an opening night showing of “The Dark Night Rises.”
Chief Deputy District Attorney Karen Pearson didn’t explain in court Aug. 30 why she believed Holmes could have planned to be dead, but she pointed to a dating site where Holmes asked if he would be visited in prison.
“He intended to be dead or in prison after this shooting,” Pearson said last month.
To bolster arguments set for Thursday, Deputy District Attorney Rich Orman told Sylvester that Aurora police major crimes Detective Craig Appel, the lead investigator, and Detective Tom Welton, an investigator in the case would testify Thursday.
Orman said in court that Appel will testify that Holmes did the shooting, that he bought a ticket at the theater, took a seat, then walked out of an emergency exit, propping the door open so he could come back and do the shooting. Orman said Welton will testify that it was Holmes who posted profiles on Match.com and AdultFriendFinder.com before the shooting with the tagline, “Will you visit me in prison?”
“As a possible motive, prosecutors suggest Holmes was angry at a failing academic career.
Holmes was a graduate student in the neuroscience program at the University of Colorado. Prosecutors say Holmes did poorly on a key exam and withdrew on June 10 while he was stockpiling guns, ammunition and body armor ahead of the shooting.
Holmes had also applied at graduate neuroscience programs at Iowa, University of Illinois, Texas A&M, Kansas, Michigan and Alabama.
Holmes was accepted at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign with an offer of free tuition and $22,000 a year. But Iowa rejected him with a “Do NOT offer admission under any circumstances” notation.
University of Alabama at Birmingham also rejected him with one professor noting that “he may be extremely smart, but difficult to engage.”
Prosecutors to argue for access to Holmes’ notebook in Colorado shooting case
[Fox News 9/20/12 by The Associated Press]
Recent Comments