Colorado theater shooting case goes to jury

WATCH: The fate of the man who shot and killed 12 people and injured 70 others at a suburban Denver movie theater is now in the hands of the jury. Jurors in the death penalty trial of James Holmes heard closing arguments today. Don Champion reports.

CENTENNIAL, Colo. – James Holmes was legally sane when he entered a packed movie theatre armed with an assault rifle, a shotgun and a pistol, intent on killing as many people as he could, a prosecutor told jurors Tuesday in closing arguments at the gunman’s trial.

“That guy was sane beyond a reasonable doubt, and he needs to be held accountable for what he did,” District Attorney George Brauchler said.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "That guy was sane beyond a reasonable doubt, and he needs to be held accountable for what he did," District Attorney George Brauchler said.

But defence lawyer Daniel King countered that Holmes was controlled by his schizophrenia.

“The mental illness caused this to happen. Only the mental illness caused this, and nothing else,” King said.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "The mental illness caused this to happen. Only the mental illness caused this, and nothing else," King said.

Brauchler and King made their final appeals to jurors Tuesday before handing over the case. Jury deliberations are scheduled to begin Wednesday morning.

Holmes slipped into the packed theatre in Aurora, Colorado, on July 20, 2012 – almost three years ago – and opened fire. Twelve people died and 70 were wounded.

WATCH: (June 25) The defense began its case by bringing a prison nurse in as its first witness to try and prove that James Holmes was insane at the time of the shooting. Rick Sallinger reports.

Defence attorneys are asking for a verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity, which would send Holmes to the state mental hospital for an indefinite commitment. Prosecutors say Holmes should be convicted of murder and executed.

Brauchler again stressed the heavy toll on unsuspecting victims who had gone to see the midnight premiere of a Batman movie, “The Dark Knight Rises.”

“They came in hoping to see the story of a hero dressed in black, someone who would fight insurmountable odds for justice,” Brauchler said. “Instead, a different figure appeared by the screen. … He came there with one thing in his heart and his mind, and that was mass murder.”

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "They came in hoping to see the story of a hero dressed in black, someone who would fight insurmountable odds for justice," Brauchler said. "Instead, a different figure appeared by the screen. … He came there with one thing in his heart and his mind, and that was mass murder."

Many of the victims and family members in the courtroom wept as Brauchler showed photos of the dead and wounded and recounted their stories. Josh Nowlan, who was shot in the leg and walks with a cane, pressed his hands into his eyes and shook.

Jurors showed no emotion but craned their heads toward the gallery when Brauchler said one badly wounded victim, Caleb Medley, was seated there.

King urged the jurors to set aside the deeply emotional impact of the massacre and decide based on the wording of the statute. He repeatedly told them the courtroom was “the fortress of the law.”

“Here in the fortress of the law, there is no room for hatred or revenge or retaliation,” he said.

WATCH: James Holmes was seeing a psychiatrist in the months leading up to the shooting. That psychiatrist has faced her own questions about the treatment she provided. She’s now testifying about that treatment and what the suspect told her. Rick Sallinger reports.

Holmes, now 27, does not dispute that he was the lone gunman who attacked the theatre but pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. His lawyers say schizophrenia so warped his mind he could not tell right from wrong, and that he was in the grip of a psychotic episode.

“When he stepped into that theatre, the evidence is clear that he could not control his thoughts, that he could not control his actions, and that he could not control his perceptions,” King said.

King pleaded with jurors to believe that Holmes’ mental illness was the sole cause of the attack. On the courtroom video screens, King showed multiple images of Holmes as he appeared in his first court appearance, wide-eyed with shocking orange hair.

“I would ask you to do good, be strong, and do the right thing,” King said. “He’s not guilty by reason of insanity.”

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "I would ask you to do good, be strong, and do the right thing," King said. "He's not guilty by reason of insanity."

Brauchler told jurors the evidence shows Holmes knew what he was doing was illegal and wrong and that he cannot be considered insane under Colorado law.

The prosecutor methodically reviewed Holmes’ elaborate preparations, the horrific attack and finally his decision to surrender when he saw police closing in outside the theatre.

He frequently pointed at Holmes, who sat impassively at the defence table, often looking at one of the three video screens in the courtroom.

“He knows it’s wrong,” Brauchler said at one point. “Wrong for him, wrong for society.”

Holmes’ parents, Robert and Arlene Holmes, sat on the opposite side of the courtroom from the victims.

Closing arguments had been scheduled to start earlier in the day but were delayed after the defence said some of the slides prosecutors planned to show jurors were improper. Brauchler defended the images.

Judge Carlos A. Samour Jr. ordered Brauchler to change or delete some of the slides, saying they misstated the evidence or made overbroad allegations.

Both sides are trying to help jurors make sense of thousands of pieces of evidence and more than 250 witnesses who testified in the 11-week trial.

Two state-appointed forensic psychiatrists who evaluated Holmes determined that he was legally sane, despite severe mental illness. The defence called its own psychiatrists who testified Holmes was insane.