CENTENNIAL — Three years to the day after the mass murder at an Aurora movie theater, prosecutors and defense attorneys returned to court Monday to argue over punishment for the killer.
in the theater shooting trial was spent debating legal instructions that will be given to jurors during the sentencing portion of the case. That phase of the trial doesn’t begin until Wednesday, when jurors — who had the day off Monday — return to the courtroom for the first time of 24 counts of murder and 140 counts of attempted murder for the attack on the Century Aurora 16 movie theater.
Defense attorneys, though, provided a preview Monday of their arguments against a death sentence when they called Holmes’ fifth-grade teacher to the witness stand to video record his testimony. The teacher, Paul Karrer, isn’t available to testify later in the month when the defense will call the rest of its sentencing witnesses.
Karrer, who taught Holmes at Castroville Elementary School in central California, said Holmes was a bright student who made the highest honor roll both semesters of fifth grade.
“He smiled; he was a smiler,” Karrer said. “… There was no dark side.”
On cross-examination, Karrer told prosecutor Karen Pearson that he had not seen or spoken with Holmes since his former student left the fifth grade.
“So you don’t know what kind of person he became after that?” Pearson asked.
The sentencing trial will have .
In the first — expected to begin and conclude on Wednesday — prosecutors must prove an “aggravating factor” that makes the murders especially heinous. In the second, defense attorneys can call “mitigation” witnesses to speak to Holmes’ character. And in the third, prosecutors may call family members of those slain to talk about the shooting’s impact.
Before and after each phase, Samour must give jurors instructions on how to apply the law.
John Ingold: 303-954-1068, jingold@denverpost.com or twitter.com/johningold
