Parents of Colorado movie theater victim living in camper to not miss trial
Unique arrangement has been “like a refuge to us”
CENTENNIAL, Colo. — Lonnie and Sandy Phillips left nearly everything behind when they moved here three months ago to be a voice for their slain daughter during the capital murder trial of Colorado movie theater gunman James Holmes.
In the process, the Texas couple has discovered a bit of peace for themselves — in a 393-square-foot travel trailer.
“When you lose a child to murder, you learn that nothing else matters — just the time we have together and what we do with it,” said Sandy, 65.
The Phillipses, vowing not to miss a moment of the trial, sold 75 percent of their belongings, rented out their San Antonio home and pulled a just-purchased camper to Denver in time for opening statements in late April.
“It’s like a refuge to us,” Lonnie, 71, said of the one-bedroom camper.
The couple has lived in the tight quarters with their two Maltese-mix dogs for nearly three months. Just inside the front door rests a photo of Jessica Ghawi, their 24-year-old daughter who was among the 12 people slain when the shooter opened fire in the theater on July 20, 2012 in nearby Aurora.
Jurors in the case are set to hear closing arguments Tuesday after seeing more than 250 witnesses testify and 1,500 photographs submitted into evidence.
Assistance funds provided to victims and their families allowed the Phillipses to stay in a hotel for a couple of weeks, but the remainder of their nights have been in the trailer parked on a local Good Samaritan’s property about four miles from the courthouse.
“It’s tiny living,” said Sandy, 65. “We’ve gotten very good at it.”
The trailer came with two TVs, but the couple spends most evenings sitting outside watching the hummingbirds or the sun setting behind the Rocky Mountains.
“We’re in the courtroom everyday, so what do we really need with a bunch of stuff?” said Sandy, recalling the possessions that filled their four-bedroom San Antonio house.
Jessica was a budding sports reporter who had been in Denver less than two years when she was shot multiple times during a midnight screening of the Batman movie “The Dark Knight Rises.”
“She was afraid of guns and loud noises,” her stepfather said. “It was a horrible way for Jessi to die.”
[Related: After all is said in theater attack trial, was Holmes sane?]
Sandy, a former tourism manager, hasn’t missed a day at the Arapahoe County Justice Center. She has left the courtroom only when graphic testimony such as Jessica’s autopsy was presented.
“I don’t need to see the photos, I want to remember her the way she was,” said Sandy, who wears her daughter’s green scarf and perfume to court.
The couple will be in court Tuesday when jurors hear closing arguments and get instructions from the judge on deciding whether Holmes met the state’s threshold for insanity at the time of the massacre.
Defense attorneys argued that Holmes suffers from an array of mental illnesses. At the time of the murders, they said he was having delusions that he could increase his own self-worth by killing people. Two of four doctors who testified said they believed Holmes to be insane.
During the trial, it was revealed Holmes told a psychiatrist that he “tried to minimize child fatalities by choosing a midnight PG-13” movie.
“If that doesn’t prove to the jury he knew right from wrong, then we don’t have a very good jury,” Sandy said.
If convicted, the former neuroscience graduate student could face the death penalty. The Arapahoe County District Attorney reportedly rejected a plea deal early on that would have sent Holmes to a state hospital for life.
Lonnie, who previously worked in car finance, said they were one of the families that voted against a trial.
“We didn’t want to sit through that crap,” he said. “Now that we’ve gone through the trial, it’s not going to bother us as much to see him get the needle. We don’t care, as long there’s no possibility of him getting out. Once this is over, he is out of our lives. I want society to forget about him.”
After the trial, the Phillipses plan to take their trailer and travel the country, to educate potential crime victims.
“We are trying to save others from the same fate,” Sandy said.
In the opening days of the trial, the Phillipses would spend evenings at the trailer debriefing one another on case developments.
“We talk about the trial, but it’s not our focus anymore,” Sandy said.
“It’s not defining who we are.”
Though cramped, the white camper surrounded by lush trees and flowers has become a welcome getaway. Many mornings Lonnie brings in a pink peony and puts it on the table before they leave for court.
“His role is to keep me standing and he’s doing an excellent job,” she said. “We have our moments where we go to dark spots.”
With both their eyes welling with tears, Lonnie tries his best about-face.
“I don’t know if I always make her laugh, but I bring a smile,” Lonnie said.
Ghawi, whose ashes were spread by friends and family in spots across the U.S. and several countries, wouldn’t want her mother to grieve too long, both said.
“We’ve learned to live in the moment a lot more than we have before,” Sandy said. “It’s not about how Jessi died, it’s about how she lived.”
Jason Sickles is a reporter for Yahoo News. Follow him on Twitter (@jasonsickles).
