New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said James Holmes had dyed his hair reddish orange and claimed to be The Joker, the green-haired villain from the Batman movies.
“The first order of business for his defense lawyer is to get a grasp of Holmes’ mental status,” said former federal prosecutor Rick Kornfeld, who defended the parents of Columbine killer Dylan Klebold. “The only real defense would be the insanity defense.”
Craig Silverman, former prosecuter in the Denver District Attorney’s office, said that the defense attorney “would have to prove that [Holmes] lacked the capacity to distinguish right from wrong. Insanity would apply if this guy really thought he was a character in a movie.”
Since yesterday, James Homes has been held in solitary confinement, for his protection against other inmates and on suicide watch, at Arapahoe County Detention Facility. He is being held without bond on suspicion of multiple counts of first-degree murder. A public defender has been appointed to him and his initial hearing is tomorrow.
According to CNN, University of Colorado (CU) spokeswoman Jacque Montgomery said.”As a grad student you have an opportunity to work for the university in the research program for the programs that you’re studying. He worked in the neurosciences program. It is a paid position.”
Montgomery confirmed that Holmes was a student there but “was in the process of withdrawing.” The university said Holmes gave no reason for asking to withdraw from the program. People that knew James said he seemed frustrated that, after achieving his undergrad degree, the only job he could get was at McDonald’s.
Documents show that Holmes had been enrolled in a course titled, “Biological Basis of Psychiatric and Neurological Disorders.” On May 8, 2011, he gave a presentation on the topic of MicroRNA biomarkers. CU described his program as, “training outstanding neuroscientists and academicians who will make significant contributions to neurobiology.”
Before CU, in 2010, James graduated with top honors from University of California Riverside with a bachelors of science in neuroscience. He was an honor student and one of only six recipients of a neuroscience training grant from the National Institutes of Health.
Holmes was quiet and a loner. The Associated Press said, “In the age of widespread social media, no trace of James Holmes could be found on Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, Twitter or anywhere on the Web. Either he never engaged or he scrubbed his trail.”
Holmes did, however, have a profile up on a sex site called, AdultFriendFinder.
Out of respect to the families of the victims, Warner Bros. was reluctant to speak about ticket sales after the monstrous massacre. They did, however, finally agree to talk with The New York Times, who wrote that Christopher Nolan’s Batman 3 “The Dark Knight Rises” did manage “to score one of the best opening weekends at the box office.” The Times quoted that figure at $190 million. According to many Web sources the movie cost $250 to make. Warner Bros. is most likely very relieved about their finances. Multitudes of fans are still eager to see the film and no showings of the film have been cancelled here in New York City, nor anywhere else.