James Holmes Failed Exam, Was Told To Pursue Another Career Prior To Aurora Shooting

Prosecutors in the Aurora, Colorado shooting spree case say that James Holmes made threats and was subsequently banned from the University of Colorado after failing a key exam six weeks before the rampage. “Find another career field,” was the advice from professors that may have started Holmes down his destructive path.

We previously said that James Holmes is actually not as intelligent as early reports characterized him, and new claims by the prosecution in the case against him seem to confirm our initial report. The prosecution’s claim that Holmes had failed a key exam and was banned from campus afterwards also lends to something that this case is still lacking: proper motive.

The prosecution leveled their accusations against James Holmes in court Thursday as they attempted to convince a judge to give them access to records from the university where Holmes was enrolled as a graduate student. The prosecutors also claimed that University of Colorado professors advised Holmes to look for a different line of work prior to the shooting. Attorney Karen Pearson didn’t say where the prosecution got the information, and they didn’t give any details about the supposed “threats” made by Holmes.

The defense objected to the release of academic records, with Attorney Daniel King calling the prosecution’s request a “fishing expedition.”

James Holmes is accused of killing 12 people and wounding 58 others in a July 20 shooting at an Aurora, Colorado theater during the midnight premiere of The Dark Knight Rises. Since his arrest, he has showed increasingly antisocial and eccentric behavior behind bars, and the cult-of-personality surrounding the reported killer is beginning to border on disturbing.