By Keith Coffman

CENTENNIAL, Colo. (Reuters) — Condemning the movie massacre gunman to 12 life sentences and the maximum 3,318 years in prison for his rampage in a midnight screening of a Batman film, a Colorado judge on Wednesday said evil and mental illness were not mutually exclusive.

“It is the court’s intention that the defendant never set foot in free society again … If there was ever a case that warranted the maximum sentences, this is the case,” Arapahoe County District Court Judge Carlos Samour said

“The defendant does not deserve any sympathy.”

Survivors and relatives of those killed clapped and cheered as Samour then ordered deputies to remove James Holmes from his courtroom, and the gunman was led away in shackles.

The 27-year-old was found guilty by a jury last month of murdering 12 people and wounding 70 in his rampage inside the packed screening a multiplex in the Denver suburb of Aurora.

The jury did not reach a unanimous decision on whether Holmes should be executed. That meant the former neuroscience graduate student, who had pleaded insanity, got a dozen automatic life sentences with no possibility of parole.

Samour still had to sentence Holmes on attempted murder counts and an explosives charge.

Condemning the shooter to the longest term he could issue, the judge said Holmes decided to “quit” in life, and that he set out to kill “as many innocents as possible.”

Samour said whatever illness Holmes may have suffered, there was overwhelming evidence that a significant part of his conduct had been driven by “moral obliquity, mental depravity … anger, hatred, revenge, or similar evil conditions.”

He said “the $64 million question” that still lingered was whether the defendant was afflicted by a mental condition, disease or defect, and if so, to what extent.

“We tend to like simple answers, but maybe it’s not so simple,” Samour said. “And maybe that’s because we’re not where we need to be in the fields of psychiatry and psychology.”

JUDGE PRAISES VICTIMS

After two days of often tearful and sometimes angry testimony from victims, District Attorney George Brauchler had called on Tuesday for Holmes to be given every day of the longest possible sentence.

The lead prosecutor also said he wished the court could order that the defendant spend the rest of his days in solitary confinement, surrounded by photos of the people he killed, but that it could not.

Samour said he had heard some people bemoan that the gunman would luxuriate in prison.

But he said he thought one of the victims summed it up best when he said being behind bars would be no picnic.

The judge said people could focus on the free food and medical care Holmes will receive. Or, he said, they could see the glass as half-full and consider he will be locked up for the rest of his days with serious, dangerous criminals.

“That doesn’t sound a like a four-star hotel to me,” Samour said.

Defense lawyers say they have no plans to appeal, and the judge said that meant they had “truly completed” the trial in a surprisingly short period of just over three years.

“That’s unheard of time for a death penalty case, especially one of this magnitude,” Samour said.

And the judge praised the victims, who he said had shown tremendous courage and grit, some of whom were disappointed that Holmes was not sentenced to death.

“You know your healing is not tied to the defendant’s fate,” Samour said.

“Even despite all the pain and suffering you’ve been through, you’re not quitting, and you’re hanging in there, and you’re fighting. You have my admiration.”

(Reporting by Keith Coffman; Additional reporting and writing by Daniel Wallis; Editing by Toni Reinhold and David Gregorio)

Photo: Colorado movie massacre gunman James Holmes (2nd R) leaves court for the last time before beginning his life sentence with no chance of parole after a hearing in Centennial, Colorado August 26, 2015. REUTERS/RJ Sangosti/Pool

By Keith Coffman

CENTENNIAL, Colo. (Reuters) — One survivor of the Colorado movie massacre demanded the gunman give a televised apology. Another victim said James Holmes should make himself available for study by scientists.

And a third said he ought to complete a PhD and do something “amazing for humanity” while he serves life in prison, or be put to death for his July 2012 rampage.

Stacie McQuinn, whose step-son Matthew was murdered, wrote in a statement that the 27-year-old mass killer should receive no visits or contact from family or friends.

“We are unable to visit our loved ones, and unable to hug them, give a kiss, hold their hand,” she said in the statement, which was read by a prosecutor.

“We are unable to pick up the phone and say ‘Hi, how are you doing?’ We are unable to write them … So the defendant should not be able to have any of those things.”

About 80 victims of Holmes’ attack on a packed midnight screening of a Batman film at a Denver-area multiplex are testifying during a three-day formal sentencing hearing.

Holmes was found guilty last month of murdering 12 people and wounding 70. The jury did not reach a unanimous decision on whether he should be executed, meaning the former neuroscience graduate student received a dozen automatic life sentences.

Many of those who have spoken since the hearing began on Monday thanked the prosecutors and Arapahoe District Court Judge Carlos Samour for how they handled the months-long trial.

Arlene and Bob Holmes, who had testified that their son’s schizophrenia drove his actions, hugged one of the younger victims, Jansen Young, in a corridor outside the courtroom. Young, who was sitting with someone who died, had suggested in her testimony that Holmes should allow himself to be studied by mental illness experts.

The judge did take issue on Monday with comments by one victim, Kathleen Pourciau, who said the gunman should not have been spared.

“The message is that the state of Colorado values the life of a mass murderer more than the lives of those he murdered,” said Pourciau, whose daughter Bonnie Kate was wounded.

Samour defended the jury’s decision.

“Justice was done in this case not because of the outcome, but because of the process,” he said.

When another victim suggested a juror opposed to Holmes’ execution must have concealed an anti-death penalty stance during the selection process, the judge rejected the allegation and said there was no evidence anyone on the panel had been “deceptive or did anything improper.”

(Reporting by Keith Coffman; Editing by Daniel Wallis and David Gregorio)

James Holmes and his defense attorney Daniel King (R) sit in court for an advisement hearing at the Arapahoe County Justice Center in Centennial, Colorado June 4, 2013. REUTERS/Andy Cross/Pool

By Keith Coffman

CENTENNIAL, Colo. (Reuters) — A Colorado jury sentenced movie rampage gunman James Holmes to life in prison on Friday, rejecting the death penalty for the 27-year-old who entered a midnight showing of a Batman movie wearing a gas mask, helmet and body armor and shot dead a dozen people.

Last month, the panel of nine women and three men found the former neuroscience graduate student guilty on all counts related to the July 2012 massacre. They were not unanimous, however, on the death penalty, which means Holmes receives an automatic life sentence with no possibility of parole.

After warning members of the public in the gallery against making any emotional outbursts, Arapahoe County District Court Judge Carlos Samour began reading the verdict forms.

On each count, he read, the panel had been unable to agree that Holmes should be executed by lethal injection, and that they understood that as a result, the court will impose a sentence of life imprisonment.

Holmes showed no reaction, staring straight ahead, hands in pockets.

The verdict brings to an end a long-delayed, lengthy, and high-profile trial just a little more than three years after Holmes’ rampage in a suburban Denver multiplex put a spotlight on gun control, mental illness and security in public spaces.

The jury already convicted him on all charges from the July 20, 2012 mass shooting at the showing of The Dark Knight Rises in Aurora. Seventy people were also wounded in the attack.

Prosecutors say Holmes aimed to slaughter all 400 theater goers. But he failed to kill more, they said, in part because a drum magazine he had bought to boost his firepower jammed.

The proceedings against Holmes began in late April and reached penalty phase closing arguments on Thursday after 60 days of trial, 306 witnesses, and the introduction of nearly 2,700 pieces of evidence.

In his speech to the jury, District Attorney George Brauchler said justice for Holmes meant execution for the “horror and evil” he wrought inside the crowded cinema.

During the trial, dozens of wounded survivors testified about how they had tried to hide from the gunman’s hail of bullets, some of them steel-penetrating rounds, or stumbled over the bodies of loved ones as they tried to flee.

Defense lawyer Tamara Brady had stressed that Holmes had no previous criminal record. She had asked jurors whether they were ready to sign the death warrant of a mentally ill person and said they would have to live with the decision for the rest of their lives.

While the jury rejected Holmes’ plea of insanity, Brady said all the doctors the panel had heard from in court had agreed that he was seriously mentally ill.

Holmes had remained mostly expressionless throughout the trial, occasionally turning to look when a photograph of himself appears on a court television.

The defense said he suffers schizophrenia, and that his “aloof or distracted” demeanor was caused by anti-psychosis drugs that treat, but do not cure, the disease.

(Reporting by Keith Coffman; Additional reporting and writing by Daniel Wallis; Editing by David Gregorio and Alden Bentley)

James Holmes (L) stands in court as the verdict is read in this still image taken from video in Denver, Colorado, July 16, 2015. (REUTERS/Pool)