Aurora: The suspected Batman movie premiere gunman was seeing a university psychiatrist specialising in schizophrenia before the shooting that killed 12, court documents have showed.
James Holmes sent a notebook to Lynne Fenton, who teaches at the University of Colorado’s medical school and heads student mental services there, that included details and drawings depicting his planned mass killing, according to Friday’s reports. It was unclear when the package reached the school, and officials remained tight-lipped due to a gag order imposed by the judge overseeing the case.
But Arapahoe County District Judge William Sylvester unsealed a defense motion to order authorities to hand over the package Holmes sent to Fenton, claiming it was “protected” communication. The motion also said Holmes’s constitutional rights had been violated by the “breach of confidentiality and privilege.”
In a preview of likely battles to come, the defense lawyers argued that the contents of the package should not be used as evidence because “Mr Holmes was a psychiatric patient of Doctor Fenton, and his communications with her are protected.”
Holmes is expected to be charged with 12 murders and 58 attempted murders at his next court appearance on Monday, when he is due to be formally charged over the July 20 shooting. Sylvester granted a hearing on the defense motion also be held on that day. Fenton’s research focuses on schizophrenia and other major mental illnesses.
Prosecutors rebuffed the defense motion and argued that many of the news stories about the package contained significant factual errors and that there was no evidence the government was responsible for the leak.
Reports that the police “are currently examining the contents of the box” are “untrue, as the contents were secured and not examined,” prosecutors said. (AFP)