Arapahoe County District Judge Carlos Samour said on Thursday that most of the statements made by Aurora gunman James Holmes to law enforcement about explosives inside his booby-trapped apartment without his lawyer present can be used at his impending trial, Reuters reported.
Public defenders said at a pre-trial hearing in the case "that an FBI agent and a police detective had questioned Holmes after his lawyer had told police not to speak to him, which they said violated his due process rights. Those statements should not be allowed at trial, defense lawyers said," as also reported by Reuters.
The judge noted in his 126-page ruling that police and bomb technicians had few options
"Under the exceptional circumstances present in this case, the officers' questions about the devices in the apartment were justified by an objectively reasonable need to protect the public and first responders," Samour wrote as part of a 126-page ruling. He made mention that police and bomb technicians did not have many options "other than detonating the various homemade bombs, which could have caused an uncontrollable explosion and fire to the entire building, or put officers at risk had they gone into the unit," Reuters reported
Holmes is charged with multiple counts of first-degree murder and attempted murder for the shooting rampage in July 2012. The shooting killed 12 and wounded or injured 70 others. He has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, and prosecutors will seek the death penalty for Holmes if he is convicted.
Samour said in his ruling "that Holmes voluntarily told officers about how he rigged the explosives, which helped them defuse the bombs safely. The officers did not coerce, threaten or intimidate Holmes, who understood what the officers were after and appeared "relaxed" during the interview, Samour said," as Reuters reported.
Samour has postponed the murder trial indefinitely as "he considers whether to allow a second sanity examination of Holmes that prosecutors are seeking. Hearings on the issue are set for later this month," according to Reuters.
The judge barred the media and the public from the hearing and trial.
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