File photo of James Eagan Holmes (Reuters)
Jurors in the Colorado movie massacre trial found on Thursday the prosecution had proved aggravating factors that, the state has argued, make the 2012 rampage so heinous that the gunman, James Holmes, deserves be put to death.
At around midday, the jury said the prosecution had proved at least one aggravating factor. The state only had to prove one for the process to advance to mitigation.
The jury of nine women and three man will now hear mitigation witnesses called by the convicted killer's attorneys during the second part of the punishment phase of the trial that is expected to last about a month.
The jurors will then deliberate on whether the mitigating factors outweigh the aggravating ones. If they vote that they do, the defendant gets an automatic life sentence.
The jury began deliberating on Wednesday after the prosecution presented factors which they said made the crimes especially depraved, including Holmes' murder of a six-year-old girl, and the way in which his killings during a midnight premiere of a Batman film were conducted "while lying in wait or from ambush."
© Thomson Reuters 2015