DENVER – Aurora theater shooting defendant James Holmes had been scheduled go on trial in October, but District Judge Carlos A. Samour Jr. ordered a delay until Dec. 8 because a doctor requested more time to complete Holmes’ second sanity evaluation.
Samour announced the new date last week.
Holmes, 26, a former graduate student in neuroscience, pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to charges of killing 12 people and injuring 70 in the July 20, 2012, attack.
His lawyers acknowledge he was the shooter but argue he was in the grips of a psychotic episode.
Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.
More than 400 people were watching a midnight showing of “The Dark Knight Rises” in the Aurora theater at the time.
Holmes underwent a mandatory sanity evaluation last year. The key findings haven’t been released, but prosecutors asserted the doctor who conducted it was biased.
After a closed-door hearing in January, Samour concluded the first evaluation was flawed and ordered a new one.
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