DENVER (CN) - Batman movie mass murderer James Holmes meets the criteria to be sentenced to death, the jury found Thursday.
"We, the jury, do unanimously find that the prosecution has proven beyond a reasonable doubt the existence of at least one of the alleged aggravating factors with respect to this count of murder in the first degree," Arapahoe County Judge Carlos Samour Jr. read at 1 p.m. on Thursday afternoon.
Now the second phase of sentencing begins for Holmes, who killed 12 people and wounded 70 at a Century 16 theater on July 20, 2012. His public defenders will try to persuade the nine-woman, three-man jury to sentence him to life in prison rather than death.
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