Theater Victim's Grandpa: Court Should Go After Juror

Friends and family of victims describe grief, heartbreak in court
By Arden Dier,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 25, 2015 7:22 AM CDT
Theater Victim's Grandpa: Court Should Go After Juror
James Holmes appears in court for the sentencing phase in his trial yesterday at Arapahoe County District Court in Centennial, Colo.   (RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post via AP, Pool)

The grandfather of a 6-year-old girl killed in the Aurora theater shooting says the holdout juror who spared James Holmes' life may have intended to do so all along. During testimony yesterday, Robert Sullivan suggested the juror had "a moral purpose ... to save (Holmes) from the death sentence" but was deceptive about her beliefs. "I would like to see the court go after that juror," he said, per the AP. Judge Carlos Samour Jr. shot down his remarks, noting there was no evidence of deception. But Sullivan wasn't the only one upset by the jurors' decision. A woman whose daughter was injured in the shooting argued a sentence of 12 life terms was "absurd" and "the judicial equivalent of beating a dead horse." It shows "Colorado values a mass murderer more than the lives of those he murdered," she said.

About 40 people gave victim impact statements yesterday, though 100 are expected to speak before Samour formally delivers Holmes' sentence tomorrow, reports CNN. While not all have taken issue with the coming sentence, many described Holmes as a monster. A police officer said he and other officers "were subjected to nothing less than the trauma of war" and suffered emotional trauma, per the Denver Post. He added Holmes should be locked away and forgotten. "I hope that every day is painful for him. I hope that prison is not kind to him," he said. "The past haunts you to the point of exhaustion," added a father who lost his 23-year-old daughter. "Nothing brings you a sense of happiness. He didn't have the right to take her from me ... I don't want to be close to anyone else in case this happens again." (More James Holmes stories.)

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