A judge entered a not guilty plea for Aurora movie theater shooting suspect James Holmes after his attorneys said they weren’t ready to respond to charges that he murdered 12 people and tried to kill 70 others, reports the Denver Post.
Holmes was scheduled to enter a plea on Tuesday, and was arraigned in Arapahoe County Court on 166 counts of murder, attempted murder and other crimes related to the July 20 attack.
Cameras were allowed in the courtroom. The families of several victims sighed when the Daniel King, the defense attorney, said Holmes would be ready to make a plea by May or June 1. “Prosecutors said they had waited long enough,” the Denver Post reported.
William Sylvester, the judge in the case, entered the plea on Holmes’ behalf over his attorneys’ objections that he wasn’t ready, which gives Holmes the chance to change his plea to not guilty by reason of insanity, the Denver Post reports.
