Colorado Theater Shootings: Prosecutors and Defense Attorneys unveil Unknown Facts

Almost after three years of mystery, a clear picture of James Holmes came into light after the first trial in the Colorado theater shootings.

The defense lawyers in an opening statement on Monday portrayed James as a smiling child who enjoyed surfing with his family but who even sensed that something was going wrong in his mind.

In the hope to find a solution to his illness, he went to study neuroscience at the University of Colorado, but eventually his mental illness propelled him to do a terrifying attack on a suburban Denver movie theater in July 2012, defense lawyer Katherine Spengler said.

Prosecutors depicted him as a frighteningly smart killer, who was well planned and carried out a mass murder to make him feel good and be remembered, despite knowing the fact that whatever he was doing was illegal and immoral.

No witness to the case came in front but in the four-hour-long trial the prosecutors and the defense attorneys revealed some earlier unknown facts that were kept hidden for several months because of the judge's gag order.

Defense attorneys didn't dispute that Holmes killed 12 people and injured 70 during the brutal attack into a midnight premiere of a Batman movie. But they said that Holmes due to the sickness of schizophrenia could not sense right or wrong and even had no control over his actions.

On the other hand, prosecutors revealed that two psychiatrists appointed by court in their report told that Holmes was sane when he did the brutal act at Colorado theater.

Holmes during the entire first day of the trial sat quietly, harnessed to the floor by a cable that ran through his pants leg.

District Attorney George Brauchler, said, "He tried to murder a theater full of people to make himself feel better and because he thought it would increase his self-worth".

Holmes has pleaded not to be guilty by reason of insanity. His defense hopes jurors will agree and have him indefinitely committed to a mental institution.