New Details Emerge in Aurora Theater Shootings

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/23/us/new-details-emerge-in-aurora-theater-shootings.html

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CENTENNIAL, Colo. — In the weeks before a mass shooting at a packed movie theater that left 12 dead and dozens wounded, James E. Holmes received six packages from an online ammunition dealer, according to newly unsealed court documents.

Mr. Holmes has been charged with 166 counts of murder, attempted murder and other charges in the attack, which took place last July 20.

The shipments were among other details scattered through search warrants and affidavits that were unsealed here on Wednesday. Much of the information had already emerged in earlier court hearings.

According to the documents, in the days after the shooting, the police moved to track boxes of ammunition and other packages sent to Mr. Holmes’s Aurora apartment, his mother’s home in San Diego and the University of Colorado Denver, where he was a neuroscience graduate student.

The documents showed that the authorities sought to obtain FedEx video of Mr. Holmes receiving deliveries from an Aurora shipping center, and of an unknown man shipping a package to Mr. Holmes on July 11 from Clearwater, Fla., with a declared value of $700.

In their search of Mr. Holmes’s property, the police seemed to pay particular attention to his iPod, seeking to mine the device for videos and other data that the authorities believed may have been used to plan the attack. They also thought the iPod might offer clues into Mr. Holmes’s mental state at the time.

This month, Mr. Holmes sought to change his plea to not guilty by reason of insanity, from not guilty. The judge in the case, Carlos A. Samour Jr., is expected to formally accept the request at the end of the month.

Mr. Holmes is scheduled to appear at a court hearing Thursday, during which defense lawyers and prosecutors will lay out arguments related to the mental health evaluation he must undergo as part of his plea.