Photos of Aurora suspect smiling with gun shown at hearing
The preliminary hearing in the Aurora massacre case closed Wednesday with an indelible image: suspect James Holmes smiling into the camera while gripping a semiautomatic handgun, just six hours before the rampage.
The photo recovered from Holmes cellphone was one of dozen pictures prosecutors offered as evidence before they told a judge that the former grad student didn't care who he killed.
The defense presented no witnesses at the hearing, and the judge will rule on Friday whether there is enough evidence to put Holmes on trial for the July 20 mass murder at a suburban Colorado multiplex.
The prosecutions last witness was an Aurora police detective who cataloged the photos, meant to show that Holmes painstakingly planned the ambush that killed 12 and wounded 58 during a screening of The Dark Knight Rises.
There were four photos of the inside and outside of the Century 16 theater, two taken as early as June 29. More arresting was a series of creepy self-portraits taken the evening of July 19 Holmes hair dyed a shocking red and his eyes darkened by black contacts.
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