Feature: Death sentence likely Friday for Colorado mass murderer

The excruciating trial of Colorado mass murderer James Holmes reached its final two days Thursday after the prosecution and defense rested for the last time Wednesday.

Dubbed the "most emotional trial in U.S history" by court observers, opening arguments began 102 days ago.

It has featured testimony from mothers of murdered children, shocked all -- American first responders, dozens of crippled victims, and even the loving, intellectual parents of the mass murderer.

The trial of Colorado mass murderer James Holmes is unprecedented -- 9,000 jurors petitioned, superb legal representation, an air-tight trial, overwhelming evidence, horrifying eye-witness accounts, a unique, personal venue featuring a shooter, and the calculated planning of a brilliant, mentally-ill perpetrator.

Only the 1997 Oklahoma City bombing, when 168 people were killed and 680 wounded, eclipses Holmes' legal odyssey, although culprit Tim McVeigh's courtroom maneuvers lasted 52 days before he was sentenced to death. The Holmes trial moved past 100 days this week.

On Thursday, the emotionally drained jury of 12 will hear " closing arguments" from two top-shelf attorneys, then will deliberate Friday whether the Batman midnight movie shooter lives or dies.

The same jury has found Holmes guilty three times now, three weeks ago of 165 counts of murder and attempted murder and rigging his apartment to kill rescue personnel and increase the carnage at the theater.

Based on the jury's quick previous decisions, Holmes has little chance of avoiding a ruling of death by lethal injection.

Holmes, wearing short hair, a trimmed beard, a light-blue collared shirt and dark khakis, listened without reaction to six more witnesses, and three more mothers, whose children were slain by the former University of Colorado Ph.D. neuroscience student.

The courtroom around him heard stories of unimaginable pain and sorrow he created, ending with 25-year-old paraplegic Ashley Moser 's testimony who called her deceased daughter "my best friend...my life."

When gunfire erupted in the theater, Moser grabbed six-year-old Veronica's hand, that "slipped away" because a Holmes bullet had just pierced her stomach. The "always happy" little girl was quietly bleeding to death.

Then another Holmes bullet ripped into Ashley's spine, paralyzing her from the waist down, killing the baby in her belly, and dropping her on top of Veronica where she felt her daughter's life slip away.

So Wednesday, when Moser slowly navigated her wheelchair to the witness stand, tears were flowing in the quiet courtroom even before she spoke.

"I don't know who I am any more," she said tearfully, sitting motionless in her wheelchair as grief swept through the courtroom.

"I was a mom when I was 18, and that's all I knew how to be. And now I'm not a mom," she said slowly.

Moser went to the Century 16 Theater that July 20, 2012 night with her three-foot-tall daughter to celebrate her new pregnancy, after an ultrasound that day revealed a healthy baby inside her body.

Instead, horror ensued, as James Holmes calmly walked through an exit door of Theater 9 and sprayed bullets into the packed audience, three hitting Ashley and one penetrating little Veronica 's body.

His bullets also hit Alex Teves, Matt McQuinn, and Gordon Cowder, along with 79 others.

During the two-day "impact statement" phase of the sentencing hearing, District Attorney George Brauchler showed pictures of the 12 deceased repeatedly to the courtroom.

On Wednesday, Teves and McQuinns' mothers tearfully described their love for their young, dead sons, whose futures were as bright as the smiles they always sported.

Caren Teves' 24-year-old son Alex had recently earned a master' s degree in counseling and psychology from the University of Denver, and was kind, caring and connected to the special-needs children he supervised.

Teves, who had dedicated his life to helping others, grabbed Amanda Lindgren as bullets flew across the theater that night, sacrificing his body to protect his girlfriend who said "he would have done anything for me."

Matt McQuinn's mom Jerri Jackson testified Wednesday that she lost her job due to PTSD (post-traumatic shock syndrome), anxiety and depression, and takes four different medications to stop nightmares and help her sleep.

Like Sandy Phillips, 24-year-old Jessica Ghawi's mother, also diagnosed with PTSD, the shock of losing a child was a crippling blow to Jackson's life.

McQuinn, 27, died after hurling his body on top of his girlfriend Samantha Yowler, also wounded, who he planned to marry. After the murder, Yowler didn't leave her house for three months, Jackson said.

Some of the biggest tears fell when first witness of the day, 19-year-old Cierra Cowden described her dead father Gordon as a fun loving, charming and patient man who was close to his kids.

The oldest person killed in the theater shooting went to the midnight premiere with two of his daughters after teasing them that he bought tickets to the Disney movie "Brave" instead.

Cierra Cowden remembered tearfully when her fully-clothed, 51- year-old father leaped, without hesitation, into a swimming pool to save his daughter, who was pretending to drown.

The judge and defense team are carefully monitoring tears coming from the eyes of jury members, as they look for "excessive emotional" that might sway the decision in favor of a death sentence verdict.

James Holmes' defense noted seeing seven jurors crying during Moser's testimony, but judge Carlos A. Samour Jr. said he saw only two jurors crying and wasn't concerned that they have been overwhelmed by emotion.

Holmes spoke 58 words in court Wednesday - the most he has said publicly in three years, including the sentence, "I will not make a statement of allocution," thereby surrendering a final legal option to let him to explain why his sentence should be lenient.

Despite his heavy medication, Holmes seemed alert, lucid and was quick to respond to each of the judge's 40 questions during the "Curtis Advisement," a Colorado ruling that insures a post- conviction defendant is fully aware of his right to defend himself, even if his lawyers tell him to "say no."

Holmes declined the chance Wednesday.

The brilliant Ph.D. neuroscience grad student presents one of the most perplexing villains in U.S. history, a once normal, nice kid whose mind crumbled in the wake of defeats in school and love.

As his schizophrenia peaked, a delusional, evil demon emerged, who planned and executed a detailed plan, over several months, to massacre as many people as he could to increase his "self worth." Endite