Dorri Olds

Dorri Olds
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I'm a freelance writer who focuses on Creative Nonfiction, Movie Reviews, Celebrity Q&As, Dogs, Book Reviews, Author Profiles, and Nonprofits. My essays have appeared in many publications including The New York Times. I am a contributor to NBC's Petside, The Jewish Daily Forward and the Examiner. To see samples please visit: DorriOlds.com/articles.html I'm also the owner of a full-service website design company located in Chelsea, NYC that offers communication solutions including search engine optimization (SEO), branding, copywriting and editing, social media, internet marketing and video.

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JULY 22, 2012 3:17PM

Insanity defense for James Holmes who claimed he was The Joker

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Police Chief Dan Oates answers questions after the Aurora movie theater shooting

Aurora's Police Chief Dan Oates answers questions after the Aurora Batman 3 "The Dark Knight Rises" movie theater shooting

New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said James Holmes had dyed his hair reddish orange and claimed to be The Joker, the green-haired villain from the Batman movies.

“The first order of business for his defense lawyer is to get a grasp of Holmes’ mental status," said former federal prosecutor Rick Kornfeld, who defended the parents of Columbine killer Dylan Klebold. "The only real defense would be the insanity defense."

Craig Silverman, former prosecuter in the Denver District Attorney's office, said that the defense attorney "would have to prove that [Holmes] lacked the capacity to distinguish right from wrong. Insanity would apply if this guy really thought he was a character in a movie."

Since yesterday, James Homes has been held in solitary confinement, for his protection against other inmates and on suicide watch at Arapahoe County Detention Facility. He is being held without bond on suspicion of multiple counts of first-degree murder. A public defender has been appointed to him and his initial hearing is tomorrow.

According to CNN, University of Colorado (CU) spokeswoman Jacque Montgomery said."As a grad student you have an opportunity to work for the university in the research program for the programs that you're studying. He worked in the neurosciences program. It is a paid position."In a resume posted on Monster.com James listed himself as an "aspiring scientist" and said he was looking for a job as a laboratory technician. The resume, obtained by The Press-Enterprise in Riverside, says he worked as a summer intern at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla in 2006 and mapped the neurons of Zebra finches and studied the flight muscles of hummingbirds while he was an undergraduate at the University of California, Riverside. He also worked as a summer camp counselor to underprivileged children at a Jewish camp in Los Angeles in 2008.

Montgomery confirmed that Holmes was a student there but "was in the process of withdrawing." The university said Holmes gave no reason for asking to withdraw from the program. People that knew James said he seemed frustrated that, after achieving his undergrad degree, the only job he could get was at McDonald's.

Documents show that Holmes had been enrolled in a course titled, "Biological Basis of Psychiatric and Neurological Disorders." On May 8, 2011, he gave a presentation on the topic of MicroRNA biomarkers. CU described his program as, "training outstanding neuroscientists and academicians who will make significant contributions to neurobiology."

Before CU, in 2010, James graduated with top honors from University of California Riverside with a bachelors of science in neuroscience. He was an honor student and one of only six recipients of a neuroscience training grant from the National Institutes of Health.

Holmes was quiet and a loner. The Associated Press said, "In the age of widespread social media, no trace of James Holmes could be found on Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, Twitter or anywhere on the Web. Either he never engaged or he scrubbed his trail."

Holmes did, however, have a profile up on a sex site called, AdultFriendFinder.

Out of respect to the families of the victims, Warner Bros. was reluctant to speak about ticket sales after the monstrous massacre. They did, however, finally agree to talk with The New York Times, who wrote that Christopher Nolan's Batman 3 "The Dark Knight Rises" did manage "to score one of the best opening weekends at the box office." The Times quoted that figure at $190 million. According to many Web sources the movie cost $250 to make so Warner Bros. is most likely very relieved that the heinous massacre didn't keep people from seeing the film. Multitudes of fans are still eager to see Batman 3 and no showings of the film have been cancelled.

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I found this quote about his background They had a clip of Holmes talking on a video....

{ This is how he was explaining his mentor's shared interest in fantasy versus reality in the video:

"He also studies subjective experience which is what takes places inside the mind as opposed to the external world. I've carried on his work in dealing with subjective experience." }

I wonder who this mentor was who might have influenced his mind so much. Teachers need to be careful.
Hi Zanelle. Thanks for your comment. It is so sad that nobody around him knew he was losing touch with reality to such an extreme degree. Though it did sound like his mother knew. Not that I'm blaming her. I feel so sad for his parents. And of course the families of the victims. This seems like another case of a loner going mad, without anybody close to him to see what was happening to him.