DENVER – Eerie self-portraits that Colorado theater shooting defendant James Holmes took with his cellphone hours before the attack could be shown to jurors after the judge ruled that prosecutors can use evidence from the phone at his trial.
Other photos on the phone amount to surveillance of the theater taken up to three weeks before the shootings, prosecutors have said.
In a series of rulings made public Monday, Arapahoe County District Judge Carlos A. Samour Jr. also said prosecutors could use evidence from Holmes’ bank records, emails and computers. Defense attorneys had argued that the search warrant used to seize the cellphone, along with Holmes’ cellphone records, bank records and other evidence, were flawed. The judge disagreed and rejected eight defense motions to suppress the evidence.
The cellphone photos, shown in court last year, included one of Holmes wearing black contact lenses and a black stocking cap, with two tufts of his orange-dyed hair sticking out like a pair of horns.
In another, he held a pistol beneath his face and grinned into the lens. A third showed an assault rifle and shotgun, magazines for ammunition, tactical gear and bags to carry rounds arrayed on a red sheet on a bed.
