Batman cinema killer had getaway plan, police say

James Holmes’s two-door hatchback was full of items indicating he might have planned to flee after allegedly shooting-up an Aurora, Colorado cinema last July.

Tyre-puncturing devices, a canister of tear gas, a .40-calibre handgun,ammunition, Holmes’s iPhone and various backpacks were found in the car, police testified this week.

“I do think he was thinking that he was going to get away from that movie theatre,” Mary Ellen O’Toole, a former FBI profiler not associated with the case, told Yahoo News.

Police and federal agents testified this week that James Holmes spent weeks accumulating guns and ammunition, concocted explosives to booby-trap his apartment, and scouted the cinema where he would allegedly unleash an attack on hundreds of terrified people.

In a Colorado court, the officers also described a hellish scene inside the cinema on July 20 when 12 people were shot dead and scores of others were wounded amid a din of gunshots, screams, and the blaring soundtrack of The Dark Knight Rises.

Holmes’s lawyers called no witnesses and cross-examined only a few of those summoned by prosecutors.

But they pointedly raised the issue of Holmes’s sanity at strategic moments, possibly foreshadowing a defence that some believe is his best hope to avoid the death penalty.

“You’re aware that people can be found not guilty on the grounds of insanity?” defence lawyer Daniel King asked one witness.

The preliminary hearing was designed to allow state district judge William Sylvester to determine whether prosecutors’ case was strong enough to put Holmes on trial. Holmes faces over 160 counts of murder and attempted murder.

Sylvester’s decision is likely to come today and if, as expected, he orders Holmes to stand trial, the next step will be for Holmes to enter a plea.

Holmes’s lawyers have not said if he will plead not guilty by reason of insanity. But since his arrest, they have portrayed him as a man with serious mental problems prone to bizarre behaviour.

Many legal analysts have said they expect the case to end with a plea bargain rather than a trial.

Tom Teves, whose son Alex died, said he would rather see Holmes plead guilty to first-degree murder, avoiding a traumatic trial.