The father of a 24-year-old man gunned down during a late-night screening of The Dark Knight Rises in Aurora, Colorado last week has described the moment he came face-to-face with his son's killer and how he said to himself: 'You're not such a tough guy now.'
Tom Teves, whose son Alex Teves died saving the life of his girlfriend after gunfire erupted in the cinema, sat in the front row in Arapahoe County Courthouse as suspected gunman James Holmes, 24, made a bleary-eyed court appearance and shocked the court with his dyed red hair.
Mr Teves was among scores of relatives and friends who descended on the courthouse to face the man suspected of murdering their loved ones, with some demanding Holmes should face the death penalty for his heinous crime.
Fighting back tears outside the court, Tom Teves said: 'I saw the coward in court today, and Alex could have floored him without breaking a sweat.'
He went on: 'Seeing him in court I said to myself: 'You're not such a tough guy now', or something to that effect'.
'I didn't say it to him, they wouldn't let me near him. I was here today for my son, I honoured my son, he would have done it for me.
'Somebody had to be in the courtroom to say: "You know what, you went in with ballistic protection and guns and shot, you shot a six-year-old!" I mean give me a break.
'And when the cops came he gave up? You've got the ballistic protection on, take on some people who know how to use guns. That didn't happen.'
Alex Teves was among the 12 victims shot dead in the Aurora cinema shortly after midnight on Friday morning.
Holmes, pictured in court and in his newly-released mugshot with bright orange hair after he claimed he dyed it to look like The Joker, is accused of buying a ticket to the movie before donning ballistic gear and firing indiscriminately at the crowd, also injuring 58 people.
On Friday, he made his first court appearance looking disheveled, wide-eyed and as if he could not concentrate.
Holmes, wearing a dark red prison issue top with ‘Arapahoe County Jail’ written on its back, was brought into the court by two security guards with six more standing in the room.
The suspect sat in a chair next at the front of the court and struggled to his feet when asked to stand as the judge entered as if he were exhausted.
He looked straight ahead as the judge advised him of the case. Judge William Sylvester told Holmes he is being held on suspicion of first-degree murder and that he had denied bail. He added that the suspected gunman must not have any contact with any surviving victims or relatives of victims.
Holmes' lawyer Daniel King told the court that the defense was not yet ready for 'scientific tests', which suggests Holmes could be being lined up for a mental health test.
Throughout the advisement, Holmes sat next to Tamara Brady, his assigned public defender. While suspects often interact with their public defenders about the judge's address, Holmes sat silently.
He was watched by relatives and friends of the victims, some of whom called for the death penalty outside the court.
Prosecutors said they are seeking the death penalty for the suspected shooter, a former PhD student described as an outsider who is believed to have recently gone through a break up.
Eighteenth Judicial District Attorney Carol Chambers said that her office will decide whether to pursue the penalty after consultation with victims' families.
Speaking after the court appearance, Chambers said the decision will need to be made within 60 days of Holmes's arraignment. She said the formal charges will be filed against him next Monday.
Chambers added that first-degree murder charges can be filed if a suspect is believed to have 'extreme indifference' to a crime or if it is carried out 'after deliberation'.
She said that just because police found evidence at Holmes's apartment and arrested him soon after the killings, the legal proceedings against him are 'not a slam dunk'.
'In a case like this, the investigation doesn’t stop. It will continue right up to the trial,' she said.
Speaking outside the court victims' relatives said they were horrified by his appearance and called for him to be executed.
David Sanchez , 53, whose son-in-law Caleb Medely, 23, was shot in the head, said: 'He doesn’t look right, there is something demonic about him. He has these crazy eyes.
'I want him to get the death penalty – justice will be served when he gets the death penalty. Seeing justice is so important for me and my family. This has been horrendous.'
Corbin Dates, who was sitting in the second row of the Century 16 cinema and survived the gun attack, said he was stunned to see the suspected killer without his mask.
'It's a shock,' he told CNN. 'I did not expect taht at all. The person who was covered in black - I thought it was someone who works out, who has a history of knowing weapons.
He continued: 'He has no right coming to court and looking like he has a sad face. That's not something that's goig to be believable. Who are you trying to fool with that face?'
Legal experts told the Denver Post that Holmes's attorneys are likely to pursue an insanity defense.
And looking at Holmes in court, it is clear the suspected murderer, who stared straight ahead and blinked slowly, did not look quite right.
CNN legal analyst Paul Callan said it was unlikely he would have been given drugs that would impair his understanding of the judge's comments.
'My bet is that he was not medicated,' Callan said. 'His appearance may relate to his treatment in jail - we do not know how long he was interrogated for.
'I think you're looking at a very tired individual combined with what his normal personality might be.'
Of his defense case, former Adams County District Attorney Bob Grant told the Post he saw little option but to plead insanity.
'You just have to imagine that there is something in his psychiatric makeup that will be exploited by his defense team,' he said. 'I don't know what the hell else they are going to say.'
Experts added Holmes is likely to undergo a competency test to see if he is psychologically fit to assist in his defense.
'If in fact he is sane, it's a hopeless case for the defense,' legal analyst, Scott Robinson, said. 'They caught him literally gunpowder-handed with his weapons, with his tactical gear.'
David Lane, a lawyer who has represented 25 people charged with death-penalty offenses, added: 'There are some crimes, the nature of which just scream out 'crazy.' This is one of those cases.'
He has been held at the Arapahoe Detention Center since his arrest in the cinema parking lot just moments after the shooting spree on Friday morning.
Jailors at the facility told the New York Daily News the suspect has not shown any remorse for the killings. He has been acting bizarrely ever since arriving and 'thinks he's acting in a movie', they said.
'He was spitting at the door and spitting at the guards,' a released inmate added outside the jail. 'He’s spitting at everything. Dude was acting crazy.'
It comes as new details shed light on a possible motive for the massacre. It is believed Holmes was due to be kicked out of his flat and may have recently broken up with a girlfriend, while one friend said his addiction to video games meant he had lost touch with reality.
But it could take months to figure out the cause behind the killings; as he waited for his first court appearance, authorities disclosed Holmes is refusing to cooperate.
Before being moved to the courtroom for the hearing, he was held in solitary confinement at an Arapahoe County detention facility.
He was assigned a public defender and Aurora Police Chief Dan Oates said that the suspect has 'lawyered up' since his arrest in the early hours of Friday in the cinema parking lot.
'He's not talking to us,' Oates added.
In regards to a possible motice, Aurora police chief Daniel Oates had hinted that Holmes had recently gone through a break up and that authorities were investigating the claim.
'I’ve heard one morsel of information about a relationship that may or may not be true,' he told CBS' Face the Nation.
'That’s why we have all our investigators working on this. That’s why we brought in the FBI behavioral analysts. They’re going to figure all that stuff out.'
It is also believed that Holmes was due to be evicted from his flat. The 24-year-old, who is now in police custody, pulled out of the university weeks before the deadly attack.
Neighbours told TMZ anyone living in the block had to be enrolled at the university otherwise you had 30 days to evacuate.
It is not known exactly when Holmes stopped going to classes but it is thought he was nearing the end of the 30-day grace period.
A former classmate from the University of Colorado suggested another cause for the killings, saying Holmes had lost touch with reality after becoming 'obsessed' with video games.
The classmate told the Daily Mail: 'James was obsessed with computer games and was always playing role-playing games.
'I can’t remember which one but it was something like World of Warcraft, one of those where you compete against people on the internet.
'He did not have much of a life apart from that and doing his work. James seemed like he wanted to be in the game and be one of the characters.
'It seemed that being online was more important to him than real life. He must have lost his sense of reality, how else can you shoot dozens of people you don’t know?'
Other acquaintances, who had worked with Holmes at a children's summer camp in 2008, noted he was an outsider who was 'shy and reserved'.
'The entire staff was really close, considering we lived together - except for James,' the counselor told NBC News.
'He really kept to himself and hardly ever went on any trips with the rest of the staff. He was very shy and reserved. It is sickening knowing that he killed kids the same age that he once cared for.'
Holmes worked at the California camp during the summer of 2008, and supervised around 10 underprivileged children between the ages of seven and 14, a spokesperson said.
Amid the continuing investigation into Holmes and his character, memorial services were held in Aurora on Sunday, with the community holding a prayer vigil.
President Barack Obama also arrived to visit victims' families at the University of Colorado Hospital and said he told the families that 'all of America and much of the world is thinking about them'.
Several thousand gathered for healing at the vigil Sunday night, while well-wishers left notes, soft toys, pictures and flowers at crosses for each of the victims opposite the cinema in Aurora.
On Friday, the family of James Holmes also spoke out for the first time, through their lawyer Lisa Damiani in San Diego, California.
Damiani stressed that Holmes's mother, who had previously indicated her son was the man who had carried out the massacre, had been wrongly portrayed by the media. When she said, 'You have the right person', she meant herself, not her son, Damiani said.
The lawyer added: 'It is important that a case of this significance is tried in the courthouse, not in the media.'
When I first read that Joe Scarborough said he suspects alleged mass murderer James Holmes might be autistic, I was skeptical. Surely he'd been misquoted or his comments taken out of context. No one could be that ignorant or so egotistic to think that based on what we know, autism would have anything to do with it, right? Sadly, it's wrong.
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