Jury of 19 women, five men picked for Colorado cinema massacre trial

By Keith Coffman CENTENNIAL, Colo. (Reuters) - Lawyers in Colorado's cinema massacre case picked a jury of 19 women and five men on Tuesday to hear the long-awaited murder trial of gunman James Holmes, which is due to start this month. The dozen jury members and 12 alternates were selected from an initial pool of 9,000 possible candidates in the trial of Holmes, who is accused of fatally shooting 12 moviegoers and wounding dozens more in July 2012. Holmes' public defenders concede he opened fire inside a crowded midnight screening of a Batman movie at a Denver-area multiplex, but they say the 27-year-old southern California native was in the throes of a psychotic episode at the time he plotted and carried out the rampage. Holmes has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to multiple counts of first-degree murder and attempted murder. Jury selection began in late January, and Arapahoe County District Court Judge Carlos Samour has said he wants opening statements to take place on April 27. Public defender Tamara Brady asked a group of the last remaining prospective jurors earlier on Tuesday whether they were prepared for the intensive media coverage expected to accompany the proceedings. She also asked how they felt on Monday when they listened to the judge spend roughly 90 minutes reading aloud each of the more than 160 charges Holmes faces. One female prospective juror was let go on Tuesday after telling the court that after hearing the charges she felt she would be unable to render a not guilty verdict. Holmes, wearing a beige shirt and khaki pants and clean-shaven except for a mustache, sat with his attorneys and looked on impassively throughout the proceedings, while tethered to the floor below the desk. Arapahoe County District Attorney George Brauchler cautioned the group of prospective jurors that the trial would contain grisly photographs and video of victims and the crime scene. Holmes, a former neuroscience graduate student, was arrested wearing a gas mask, helmet and body armor at the scene of the shooting in the Denver suburb of Aurora. His trial has been delayed several times, mostly by wrangles over his state of mind at the time. Prosecutors have said they will seek the death penalty if he is convicted. (Reporting by Keith Coffman; Editing by Daniel Wallis, Doina Chiacu and Eric Beech)