Americans got a first look at presumed gunman James Holmes at a brief court hearing Monday, but remained perplexed over what triggered his alleged movie house shooting frenzy that took the lives of 12 people.
His hair dyed orange, eyes staring out blankly, Holmes made a bizarre first appearance in court, three days after the rampage that also wounded 58.
The deadly shooting occurred shortly after midnight Friday at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, outside Denver, as moviegoers packed the first screening of the latest Batman film, “The Dark Knight Rises.”
Wearing a maroon prison jumpsuit, the 24-year-old graduate school dropout didn’t speak as lawyers read out a list of accusations during the short procedural hearing at Arapahoe County District Court in the town of Centennial.
Holmes, a former PhD candidate in neuroscience, appeared unable to follow proceedings as his head bobbed up and down and he alternated between staring out wild-eyed and closing his eyes shut as if drugged or in a daze.
It was not known if he was on medication and there was no indication when the young man accused of one of America’s worst-ever mass shootings might undergo psychiatric evaluation.
Holmes gave himself up outside the cinema, still clad in the body armor witnesses described the gunman as wearing.
He is expected to face 12 murder charges, 58 attempted murder charges for those he wounded, and additional charges related to his booby-trapped apartment.
Holmes is being held in solitary confinement in the Arapahoe County jail, with no bail allowed. He is to make a second court appearance next Monday when he will enter a plea.
A first year doctoral candidate, Holmes unexpectedly dropped out of the University of Colorado last month after failing part of his end-of-year exams.
