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I suspect you’re right. The thing that stands out is how quickly his mother identified him as the monster. The other thing is how he dropped out of the highly advanced, high pressure PHD honors program just after his orals. I suspect he had a well hidden, advancing mental illness that his family knew about and concealed, hoping it would get better. Horribly, tragically, it got worse, far worse. I also suspect there will be may years of litigation and no death sentence that’s ever executed.

The thing that stands out is how quickly his mother identified him as the monster.

That's evidently not exactly what happened.

“The reason we are here is that the media has been attributing certain statements to Arlene Holmes and taking her comments out of context,” lawyer Lisa Damiani said.

In the statement read Monday by Damiani, Arlene Holmes clarified that she had been awoken by a reporter at 5:45 a.m. on Friday, and asked if she knew anything about a shooting in Aurora. Holmes said she did not, and Arlene Holmes said the reporter asked if she was Arlene Holmes and if her son was James Holmes.

In the written statement, Arlene Holmes says that is when she responded with, “Yes, you have the right person,” referring to herself. Arlene Holmes said the reporter asked for a comment about the shooting in Aurora, but that she could not comment until she knew learned more, and if the person involved was in fact her son.

Mother of Shooting Suspect Clarifies ‘You Have The Right Person’ Comment

Since he was "in the process of withdrawing" from the program, it seems like he was losing his grip on things at that point. Sometimes the onset of a psychosis allows a short to moderate period of coping, wherein the victim is able to maintain some appearance of rationality, but at some point the floodgates break.

My guess is the court will order a psych exam (pretty standard in these kinds of cases) and then we'll see what the experts say. Again, just a layman's option, but based on those pictures it sure looks like there is a very lost personality in there somewhere (not that it excuses mass killing).