James Holmes, the alleged gunman in the Aurora, Co., theater shooting, is returning to court for the next two weeks for hearings to determine exactly what evidence prosecutors will be able to use in the trial, including whether statements made on online dating profiles will be admissible, according to the Associated Press.
Holmes allegedly shot and killed 12 people and injured 70 others waiting to see a midnight showing of "The Dark Knight Rises" in 2012. Holmes has entered a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity to the 166 counts of murder and attempted murder that he has been charged with. Prosecutors are expected to seek the death penalty, according to the Associated Press.
Prior to the shooting Holmes created online profiles on the dating sites Match.com and AdultFriendFinder.com. The Match.com account was opened in April of 2012 and the AdultFriendFinder.com account was opened in July 2012; both accounts were last accessed two days before the July 20 shooting, the Daily Mail reports.
The reason the defense is fighting to keep the profiles inadmissible is that the message on the top of each profile read "Will you visit me in prison?" The defense has argued that the dating profiles are irrelevant to the case and that jurors could be prejudiced against Holmes if they were to learn about them, according to the Denver Post.
Prosecutors are expected to argue that the statement about prison shows that Holmes understood the possible consequences of his actions prior to the shooting thus disproving his plea of insanity. In earlier hearings Judge Carlos Samour allowed for the profiles to be used as evidence so they are expected to be allowed once again, according to the Associated Press.
"A reasonable inference may be drawn that the user of the accounts posted the question because he anticipated doing something that he was aware would warrant prison time," Samour wrote, according to the Daily Mail.
