CENTENNIAL, Colo. (AP) — Colorado movie theater shooter James Holmes has been sentenced to life in prison without parole after jurors were unable to come to a unanimous decision about his sentencing.
The jury deliberated for about six and a half hours over two days before reaching a decision on Friday, Aug. 7.
The same jurors rejected Holmes’ insanity defense and convicted him of murdering 12 people and trying to kill 70 others three years ago at a suburban Denver movie theater.
- RELATED: Jury convicts Colorado theater shooter of murder, July 16, 2015
During the sentencing phase, the defense told jurors that the shooting was caused by the psychotic breakdown of a mentally ill young man. The nine women and three men also listened to the stories of the children, spouses and parents of the 12 people killed and how their lives were changed forever by the attack.
Prosecutors argued that the former neuroscience graduate student deserved death for methodically planning the massacre.
But the previously decisive nine women and three men didn’t agree on death for Holmes, whose lawyers blamed the attack on mental illness.
