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Colorado shooting suspect appears odd in court
His hair dyed orange, eyes staring out blankly, presumed Colorado gunman James Holmes made a bizarre first appearance in court on Monday, after a rampage in which he allegedly shot dead 12 people and wounded 58 others.
James Holmes is being accused of 12 counts of murder and 58 counts of attempted murder as well as facing other charges for booby-trapping his apartment
The deadly shooting frenzy occurred shortly after midnight at a cinema 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 some kind of 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 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 was ordered to remain in Arapahoe County jail, where he is being held in solitary confinement, with no bail allowed. He is to make a second court appearance next Monday when he will enter a plea.
Prosecutors expect weeks of consultations with families of the victims before deciding whether or not to seek the death penalty.
Only one person has been executed in Colorado since 1976.
The gunman emerged from a fire exit on Friday shortly after the film began and threw two canisters of noxious gas into the auditorium.
After firing one round directly into the air with a pump-action shotgun, he began shooting people at random with a military-style assault rifle that could dispatch 50 to 60 rounds a minute, witnesses said.
Authorities said Holmes had painted his hair reddish orange and claimed he was the Joker, Batman's sworn enemy in the comic book series that inspired the movie.
Calls to re-examine US gun laws mounted as it emerged that Holmes bought his four weapons legally, as well as thousands of rounds of ammunition on the Internet.
