CENTENNIAL, Colo. — The courtroom looked shellshocked.
Victims and their families held hands, wiped their eyes, stared at their feet. Members of the press, normally chatty, stood in quiet stillness. Sandy Phillips and Caren Teves, both of whom lost children in the shooting, sat with their heads close, Phillips softly rubbing her friend’s shoulder.
Nobody spoke.
This silence followed the screening of a video made less than a day after the July 20, 2012 attack on the Aurora Century 16 movie theater. Essentially a tour through the bullet-ravaged auditorium, it was 45 minutes long and filmed without sound. The bodies of the 12 people who had perished in the attack were still inside the theater.
The Aurora theater shooting trial Thursday was emotional for myriad reasons. The video, so graphic that the court chose not to stream it for the public, was difficult to watch. Blood stains and bodies juxtaposed against popcorn kernels and soda cups made the experience all the more jarring.
Testimonies from survivors also brought tears. Though the court has now heard from dozens of witnesses, those who took the stand Thursday reminded the jury just how horrific the scene in the theater 9 was three years ago.
Friends of Red Robin employee Alex Sullivan and Naval officer John Larimer choked up describing their experiences. Farrah Soudani, part of the Red Robin crowd and thus seated in the row most heavily hit, described having to hold her own abdominal organs in place. Julia Vojtsek, John Larimer’s girlfriend at the time, said she couldn’t get up from underneath her boyfriend’s bodyweight.
The witnesses’ stories were familiar. The jury now knows the timeline and the setting, has heard the critical details before. But the courtroom’s reaction Thursday showed that with each retelling, the wound is reopened. The scar tissue will not come.
She didn’t love him
Victims and their families have spent weeks hearing about the Aurora theater shooter’s merciless violence against their loved ones. On Thursday, the tables turned. Gargi Datta, defendant James Holmes’ first and only real girlfriend, admitted she never loved him.
“I told him I cared about him as a friend. I wasn’t in love with him,” Datta said.
Datta, whose petite frame belied her confidence on the witness stand, refused to look at her ex-boyfriend. Holmes, facing the death penalty, has plead not guilty by reason of insanity. Instead, Datta focused her attention on prosecutor George Brauchler as he walked her through a series of Google Chats she exchanged with her then-boyfriend in 2011 and early 2012.
“You can’t get enough of my sexy Neo body,” one message said. Brauchler used this message — and Datta’s explanation of it — to refute the defendant’s claim of body dysmorphia disorder, which he described in his infamous notebook.
Though Datta admitted to pursuing the defendant at first, she said she never truly felt close to him. Their nights spent cooking, playing board games and watching Netflix together became less common as she realized his bizarre and ultimately frightening worldview.
Datta first heard about his “human capital theory” — that a killer’s “value” increases with every life he takes — from a G-chat message. Afterwards, she and their mutual friend Ben Garcia confronted Holmes and asked whether he was talking to his therapist about it. He said that he was.
Datta’s testimony was straightforward and matter-of-fact. The defendant’s mother, Arlene Holmes, was not in the courtroom to hear it. Datta described several acts of kindness. Her then-boyfriend once brought her a Slurpee when she was studying, and for Valentine’s Day prepared a candelight dinner of shrimp and roast chicken.
Ultimately, though, she felt that he was most interested in his own mind and problems. Under oath, she confirmed a statement she made to an FBI investigator mere days after the shooting.
“He valued himself the most,” she said.
There will be no court on Friday. Proceedings will resume Monday at 8:40 a.m.Â
Editor’s Note: CU News Corps will honor the victims of this tragedy with every post via this graphic.
