Judge Carlos A. Samour Jr. dismissed three jurors from the James Holmes death penalty trial on Tuesday.
The three jurors disobeyed Samour's order to avoid media coverage of the case, according to The Associated Press. The dismissals stem from one of the jurors talking to her husband during a break in trial.
The juror's husband told her, on speakerphone, that District Attorney George Brauchler had tweeted about the case while court was in session and that it was being talked about on the news. Samour dismissed her, as well as two other women who most likely heard the piece of information because they were in the same room. Brauchler was separately "reprimanded" for the tweet.
The issue was brought to Samour's attention by a juror who was not dismissed, although the defense did fight for her to be removed. She told the judge she "heard a juror talking about the trial on two previous occasions," and was visibly distraught while disclosing the information to Samour, the AP reports.
Before dismissing the original juror who talked to her husband, Samour asked why she didn't immediately report what had happened.
"I just really don't pay attention to my husband most of the time. So it wasn't really important, at that time," she told the judge.
Samour also spoke to the two other jurors prior to dismissing them. A fourth juror was almost let go as well, but Samour decided to keep her because she only heard the word "mistrial" from the speakerphone conversation and did not know the context in which it was used.
A total of 21 jurors and alternates still remain as the trial enters its seventh week.
Because of the high profile nature of the case, Samour deliberately made sure 12 alternates were chosen, which is more than usual, according to legal experts that spoke to The AP.
"The judge knew that given the attention and the amount of information that's out there, there's a good chance that some jurors are going to disobey him and do what's natural," said Alan Tuerkheimer, principal of Trial Methods, a jury consulting firm in Chicago. "They've been accustomed to the whole world at their fingertips. It's such an automatic response to try to access the world around them."
Tuerkheimer added that if the situation occurred with less alternates on the case, the defense would've had grounds to argue a mistrial.
Holmes has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to the 2012 shooting in an Aurora, Colo. movie theater that left 12 dead and 70 wounded.
