Off the wire
• Upcoming elections to be critical for stability in Haiti: UN officials  • Roundup: Canadian stock market moves higher over banks rally  • Mozambique needs legislation to promote private investment, says president  • Israel slams ICC for probing war crimes in 2010 Marmara raid  • Roundup: IS claims missile attack on Egypt navy vessel, army killed 22 militants  • Croatia to build LNG project in Krk inland  • Roundup: Britain's Liberal Democrats elect new party leader  • Portuguese gov't says conditions are set for Greek third bailout  • China's holdings of U.S. Treasuries rise for third month  • Roundup: Nasdaq ends at record high after Greek vote  
You are here: 　 Home

Urgent: Jury decides Colorado theater shooter guilty of 24 murder counts

Xinhua, July 17, 2015 Adjust font size:

A jury announced Thursday afternoon that James Holmes, who killed 12 people and wounded 70 others in a theater shooting in 2012, was guilty.

Jurors reached a verdict in the trial of Holmes and made the announcement at 4:15 p.m. local time (2015 GMT).

Each of the 12 people killed by the 27-year-old former neuroscience Ph.D. candidate had two counts of murder attached to him. The Jury of three men and nine women decided he is guilty of 24 counts of murder.

Holmes ripped hundreds of bullets at a midnight theater showing of the Batman movie "The Dark Knight Rises" in the summer of 2012. He was also decided guilty of 142 counts of attempted murder.

Holmes, 27, pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. But the jury rejected pleas from defense lawyers that Holmes had a severe mental illness and was not legally responsible for his actions on the night of July 20, 2012.

The trial will enter a sentencing phase in which the jurors will hear testimony and decide whether he should be sent to prison for life without the possibility of parole or sentenced to death. Endite