Case against Holmes, supposed Colo. mass-shooter, FALLING APART....

Lawyers: Colo shooting suspect can't go to hearing​

Link: http://news.yahoo.com/lawyers-colo-shooting-suspect-cant-hearing-211104110.html


By DAN ELLIOTT and STEVEN K. PAULSON | Associated Press – 1 hr 51 mins ago.. .

CENTENNIAL, Colo. (AP) — A court hearing for the man charged with the Colorado movie theater killings has been postponed after his attorneys said Wednesday that he had been taken to a hospital for unspecified reasons.

Court documents filed Wednesday gave no details of James E. Holmes' condition, other than that it "renders him unable to be present in court for (Thursday's) hearing." The hearing had been scheduled to discuss pretrial motions and media requests for information under state open records laws.

At a hearing Wednesday on defense attorneys' request to delay the court date, defense attorney Tamara Brady said Holmes was taken to a hospital Tuesday. She didn't say where or offer details on why, saying attorneys don't want to disclose privileged medical or psychiatric information.

"It's not as simple as a migraine, and it's not something that will resolve by tomorrow morning," she said.

Arapahoe County District Judge William B. Sylvester said that was sufficient information for him and postponed the Thursday hearing until Dec. 10.

Prosecutor Rich Orman had objected, saying the defense should be required to give more information on Holmes' condition first.

Holmes didn't attend the emergency hearing.

Denver media outlets, citing unnamed sources, reported Holmes had injured himself by hitting his head, apparently intentionally, on a jail cell wall. The Arapahoe County undersheriff wouldn't comment on the reports.

The 24-year-old Holmes is charged with killing 12 people and injuring at least 58 by opening fire in a crowded theater on July 20. A midnight showing of the latest Batman movie was under way at the time.

He's being held without bail and hasn't entered a plea.

The defense said Holmes has a constitutional right to be present at all hearings in his case and argued the Thursday hearing had to be postponed if he is unable to attend.

His mental health has been an issue in the case since shortly after the shootings. His lawyers told the judge in early August, about three weeks after the shootings, that Holmes was mentally ill. They have not said whether he would enter an insanity plea.

Holmes has appeared alternately dazed and alert in previous court appearances. Attorneys have not said whether he is under medication.

He had been seeing a psychiatrist before the shootings.
 
Lawyers for accused Colorado shooter to subpoena Fox News reporter​

Link: http://news.yahoo.com/lawyers-accus...ena-fox-news-reporter-022108184--finance.html

By Keith Coffman | Reuters – 21 hrs ago.. .

CENTENNIAL, Colo. (Reuters) - An attorney for accused Colorado theater gunman James Holmes said in court on Monday he will subpoena a Fox News reporter to reveal her source for a news story about the massacre, setting up a potential First Amendment showdown.

Public defender Daniel King said he plans to subpoena New York-based correspondent Jana Winter, who days after the July 20 rampage reported Holmes had sent a notebook to a psychiatrist detailing his plans to commit mass murder.

Holmes, a 24-year-old former neuroscience graduate student, is charged with multiple counts of murder and attempted murder for the shooting spree in the Denver suburb of Aurora, Colorado that killed 12 people and wounded 58.

King said the story, which cited an unnamed law enforcement source, violated a gag order imposed by Arapahoe County District Judge William Sylvester.

"We have not received a subpoena on Jana Winter's behalf and will evaluate once we do," a Fox News spokesperson told Reuters.

The psychiatrist, Lynne Fenton, is on staff at the University of Colorado, where she saw Holmes as a patient before he started the process to withdraw from the university before the massacre.

The move by King came after a court hearing in which more than a dozen law enforcement officers who saw the package containing the notebook in a university mail room denied under oath that they were the source of the leak.

On the night of the shooting, Holmes bought a ticket to the movie, but left the theater minutes into the film to put on tactical body armor and a gas mask. He returned to the theater and fired on the audience using several weapons, police have said.

In court on Monday, a bearded Holmes sat impassively throughout the hearing, shackled and dressed in maroon prison clothes.

Holmes' parents attended the legal proceeding, the first time they have been in court since their son's arrest. Holmes turns 25 on December 13.

His lawyers are asking the judge to impose sanctions on prosecutors for the leaked information about the notebook.

Craig Silverman, a former Denver prosecutor now in private practice, said Holmes' lawyers are making an issue of the notebook in the hope that the judge take the death penalty off the table as a sanction against the prosecutors.

"There's a real danger that the sideshow is taking over the circus," said Silverman, who attended the hearing.

(Additional reporting by Mary Slosson.; Editing by Mary Slosson and Christopher Wilson)
 
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