James Holmes, who allegedly shot 12 dead at a midnight premiere of new Batman film in Denver, has been formally charged with 142 criminal counts.
According to the charge sheet filed by the prosecution at the Arapahoe District Court in Colorado on Monday, the 24-year-old suspect faces 24 counts of first degree murder, two for each of the victims, and 116 counts of attempted murder, two each for the 58 injured in the shooting spree.
He also faces charges of trying to destroy his apartment by detonating booby traps he allegedly wired in the building.
The court delayed hearing in his bail application.
It also postponed a request by the defense counsel requiring prosecutors to immediately turn over all evidence relating to the seizure of a package, which Homes addressed to a psychiatrist who observed him at the University of Colorado Denver, where he had been in the process of dropping out as a neuroscience PhD student.
The package reportedly contained descriptions of the planned shooting.
12 people were killed when the masked gunman opened fire into a packed theater during the premiere of a new Batman film at a suburban cinema in Aurora near Denver, the capital of the U.S. state of Colorado, on July 20.
The incident coincided with one of the action scenes, when there was a gunfire shooting scene in The Dark Knight Rises.
James Holmes, dressed all in black wearing a riot helmet, bullet proof vest and goggles, was arrested in a car park nearby in possession of a rifle and hand-gun.
An apartment block in the north of the city was evacuated after the assailant told police that explosives were stored at his home.
Survivors of the shooting and family members of those killed attended the hearing, for which cameras were not allowed.
US President Barack Obama had vowed that his administration was "committed to bringing whoever was responsible to justice."
The attack is said to be the worst mass shooting in the US since 2007, when Seung-Hui Cho killed 32 people and himself on the Virginia Tech campus.
by RTT Staff Writer
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