#HolmesTrial: Doctor says James Holmes insane at time of shooting
A psychiatrist who determined that Colorado theater shooter James Holmes was insane at the time of the 2012 shootings says that people suffering from delusions can’t always control behavior – even if they know the behavior is wrong.
Dr. Jonathan Woodcock interviewed Holmes four days after the attack and concluded that he wasn’t sane. Two other court-appointed psychiatrists later concluded that Holmes was sane at the time of the attack.
Woodcock testified Thursday that Holmes had a strong family history of mental illness and was in the grip of a psychotic compulsion he could not control.
The defense’s first witness Thursday was a nurse, Jason Frank, who was working in the jail in November 2012, when Holmes ran head first into walls and fell backward on his bed. They showed a video of Holmes falling to ground and lying there for several minutes.
In questioning by a prosecutor, Frank said Holmes acted normally in other interactions before and after that video was made and noted that his cell has always been very neat.
