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A round of applause erupted unexpectedly from a packed courtroom Wednesday after a Colorado judge added 3,318 years to the 12 life sentences handed to movie mass murderer James Holmes.
"Sheriff, get the defendant out of my courtroom please," Judge Carlos Samour, Jr. ordered with aggression in his voice, saying the case "warranted the maximum sentence and that Holmes "does not deserve any sympathy."
Victims and family members rose from their seats in direct violation of court orders and gave the judge a standing ovation, replete with cheers, as a handcuffed and shackled Holmes, wearing a burgundy prison uniform, shuffled out of the courtroom for the last time.
The reserved judge, who has presided flawlessly over the four-month trial, spoke for one hour prior to imposing Holmes's final sentence, calling the surprise attack on a Batman movie audience in 2012 a "horrible, heinous, shocking, cowardly act."
Outside the courtroom, victims and family members gave sighs of relief at the maximum sentence given for each of 70 counts of attempted murder, the largest such penalty in Colorado history and one of the largest in American history.
The 3,318 years will be served consecutively with the 12 life sentences determined three weeks ago.
The 27-year-old former neuroscience Ph.D. candidate at the University of Colorado was also charged with possession of an incendiary devise, as he had rigged his apartment to explode as a diversion so he could kill more people at the theater.
"I feel like a weight has been lifted from my shoulders, like I can breathe and start living my life again," said Maria Carbonell, injured in the attack and in the theater that night with two of her three children.
Carbonell, 33, attending a birthday party for friend, 27-year-old Alex Sullivan who was killed by a Holmes bullet, broke down in tears when the judge called her name and imposed the maximum penalty for "Attempted Murder in the First Degree."
Outside the courthouse, Arapahoe District Attorney George Brauchler, who failed on his Death Penalty quest three weeks ago, got "the maximum sentence for the maximum evil," that he requested of the judge Tuesday in his closing argument.
"I still think that guy ought to die," Brauchler said, defending the legal process that spared the killer from death.
"I think his cell should be wallpapered with pictures of those he killed and tried to kill, so every time he opens his eyes he sees them," Brauchler said.
Brauchler noted the mass murderer is now in the custody of the Colorado Department of Corrections, that will decide where he is incarcerated, likely to be out-of-state due to the high profile nature of the crime.
"Big relief...it's finally over," said Scott Larimer, father of murdered 27-year-old Navy cryptologist John Larimer, who has travelled from Illinois to Colorado with his wife Kathleen to attend each day of the trial that started April 27.
"It's never over, no, not for those with broken bodies, broken minds, broken hearts," said Caren Teves, mother of Alex Teves, 24, who died shielding his girlfriend Amanda Lindgren from bullets. Lindgren later changed her last name to Teves.
"Is prison really less severe than death?" Samour asked, defending the life sentence Holmes received. "The defendant will die in incarceration, he will never be a free man again, ever."
"The place of death, generally speaking, has been determined. The only question that remains unanswered is the time of death," Samour added.
In his powerful closing statement, Samour defended the "best criminal justice system in the world," saying three years for such a complicated trial was "record time," and asked "was it a waste of time" to hear gripping stories from each of the 12 family members whose loved ones were shot to death by Holmes.
"He not only robbed their families, he robbed the world of what they would have accomplished," Samour said, as tears were seen across the courtroom. "We will never know what they would have accomplished."
Samour's speech seemed an attempt to help family members unhappy about the Aug. 6 decision to spare the killer from lethal injection, and to add some closing to the horrific case.
"Your healing is not tied to the defendant's fate," he told the victim and their families. "It is almost impossible to believe a person can be filled with such anger, such hatred of mankind, such revenge in his heart that it drove him to kill."
Members of the jury were dismissed after the Aug. 6 decision to spare the killer from the Death Penalty, but four were seen in the back of the courtroom Wednesday, and all wept when the judge acknowledged the tremendous sacrifice they made since the trial began 121 days ago.
Other accolades were heaped on first responders, police, and rescue personnel who appeared on the scene.
"Nobody signs up to see Beirut in a theater," Brauchler said. "This is the big, untold story, and the public needs to know about how these people came though and saved lives."
The three-day, final "victim impact" sentencing hearing allowed both sides to vent anger and sadness, and featured the second and perhaps last public statement from the Holmes family.
"We cry for James and cry for thousands of people in Aurora," said the shooter's mother, Arlene Holmes, in a trembling voice, with her husband Robert by her side at the podium Tuesday.
"We pray for your peace, your peace with the sentence, your ability to sleep, your ability to find a single moment of happiness even when happiness seems completely elusive," she said.
"As for my son, he feels remorse for his terrible actions," she said, pausing. "But his ability to express his emotions with his face or verbally has been impaired by disease and medication, and we know that is very, very hard for people to see."
Brauchler refuted the mother's claim Wednesday.
"He was asked by a psychiatrist, if he knew a child was in the theater, would he still have done it, and he said 'yes,'" Brauchler said. "I don't want anybody to believe he is remorseful. "
Throughout the trial, Holmes, who refused to testify on his behalf, has sat with no emotional response to the gripping testimony, swiveling in his chair.
Defense attorney Daniel King said there will be no appeals and defended an outpouring of anger directed at him and his team for sparing the killer from death by lethal injection.
"We most humbly respect the suffering of the victims in this case," King said.
"It pains us beyond measure that some of these folks may perceive any of our actions as being directed against them in any way at all. That has never been our attention to re-harm, re-injure or re-traumatize anyone."
King said they tried to do everything to prevent a trial from happening, but Brauchler, acting on the behest of many victims, pursued the costly path of the Death Penalty.
"We hope that these victims can find some measure of peace. And some measure of closure," Kind said. Enditem
