Colorado theatre shooter’s psychiatrist was warned he thought about killing people

WATCH: One of the most important witnesses took the witness stand in the Aurora theatre shooting trial. James Holmes was seeing a psychiatrist in the months leading up to the shooting. Rick Sallinger reports.

CENTENNIAL, Colo. (AP) — The psychiatrist who saw James Holmes repeatedly before he carried out his deadly attack on a Colorado movie theater said Tuesday that she had been warned before their first meeting that he said he was thinking of killing people.

Dr. Lynn Fenton said the social worker who referred Holmes to her for therapy said he seemed extremely anxious, and had homicidal thoughts, which she then brought up in their first session.

She has had other patients talk about killing people, she explained; the important thing is to figure out if they have a plan — “If they’re taking any steps to carry out any action that is related to these thoughts, and if the homicidal ideation is directed at any targets.”

He answered “no” to both questions, she said.

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Fenton saw Holmes five times in 2012 while he was a neuroscience graduate student at the University of Colorado.

She prescribed him medication for depression and anxiety, and was concerned that he had a social phobia after he confessed thoughts of killing people, according to testimony from other witnesses.

Fenton’s testimony is among the most highly anticipated of the trial, since she never spoke publicly before the trial about their sessions. By waiving his patient-client privilege when he pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, he opened the door for her testimony.

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Defense attorneys, who say Holmes is schizophrenic and was in the grips of a psychotic episode as he carried out the July 20, 2012 attack, are expected to cross-examine Fenton at length. Two other psychiatrists appointed by the court to examine Holmes concluded he was legally sane at the time.

Holmes’ gunfire killed 12 people and wounded 58; 12 others were injured in the chaos he caused.

Questions remain about whether anyone could have stopped him.

Fenton has directed the Student Mental Health Service at the University of Colorado’s Anschutz Medical Campus in suburban Aurora since 2009. She oversees the psychotherapy and medication of 15 to 20 graduate students a week, teaches psychiatry and is a researcher with a particular interest in schizophrenia, according to the school’s website.

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But Holmes said he pointedly kept Fenton uninformed of his murderous plots, and he quit seeing her when he withdrew from school more than a month before the attack. He never told her about the arsenal of weapons he was assembling. His elaborate schemes and to-do lists were kept in a journal that he didn’t mail to her until hours before the assault.

That notebook — including $400 in burned $20 bills to show that he could no longer afford her therapy after withdrawing from school — lingered in a campus mail room for days thereafter.

His list for their sessions included: “Prevent building false sense of rapport … deflect incriminating questions … can’t tell the mind rapists plan.”

But he did tell her he was having thoughts of killing people.

Fenton did contact a campus-wide threat assessment team in June 2012, and told a campus police officer about her concerns after Holmes sent her a threatening email. Fenton, however, rejected the officer’s offer to arrest Holmes and place him on a 72-hour psychiatric hold, according to the civil suit.

Two years after the shooting, Holmes told a court-appointed examiner, Dr. William Reid, that he kept Fenton in the dark. “I kind of regret that she didn’t lock me up so that everything could have been avoided,” he said in a video that was played for the jurors.