After the hearing, prosecutor Carol Chambers said that "at this point, everyone is interested in a fair trial with a just outcome for everybody involved."

Continue reading

Chambers said earlier her office is considering pursuing the death penalty against Holmes. Chambers said a decision will be made in consultation with the victims' families.

David Sanchez, who waited outside the courthouse during Holmes' hearing, said his pregnant daughter escaped uninjured but her husband was shot in the head and was in critical condition.

His daughter was scheduled to deliver her baby on Monday.

"When it's your own daughter and she escaped death by mere seconds, I want to say it makes you angry," Sanchez said.

He said his daughter, 21-year-old Katie Medley, and her husband, Caleb, 23, had been waiting for a year to watch the movie.

Asked what punishment Holmes should get if he is convicted, Sanchez said, "I think death is."

Holmes is expected to be formally charged next Monday. Holmes is being held on suspicion of first-degree murder, and he could also face additional counts of aggravated assault and weapons violations.

Holmes has been assigned a public defender.

Security at the hearing was tight. Uniformed sheriff's deputies were stationed outside, and deputies were positioned on the roofs of both court buildings.

Police have said Holmes began buying guns at Denver-area stores nearly two months before Friday's shooting and that he received at least 50 packages in four months at his home and at school.

Holmes' apartment was filled with trip wires, explosive devices and unknown liquids, requiring police, FBI officials and bomb squad technicians to evacuate surrounding buildings while spending most of Saturday disabling the booby traps.

Weeks before, Holmes quit a 35-student Ph.D. program in neuroscience for reasons that aren't clear.

He had earlier taken an intense oral exam that marks the end of the first year but university officials would not say if he passed, citing privacy concerns.

Also in June, the owner of a gun range in Byers rejected Holmes' membership application of a "bizarre - guttural, freakish" message on Holmes' voicemail.

As authorities continued to investigate Holmes, Sunday was a day for healing and remembrance in Aurora, with the community holding a prayer vigil and President Barack Obama telling victims' families that "all of America and much of the world is thinking about them."

The pastor for the suspect's family recalled a shy boy who was driven to succeed academically.

"He wasn't an extrovert at all. If there was any conversation, it would be because I initiated it, not because he did," said Jerald Borgie, senior pastor of Penasquitos Lutheran Church.

Borgie said he never saw the suspect mingle with others his age at church.

"He had some goals. He wanted to succeed, he wanted to go out, and he wanted to be the best," said Borgie, noting that last spoke with Holmes about six years ago. "He took pride in his academic abilities.

A good student. He didn't brag about it." The shooting was the worst in the U.S. since the Nov. 5, 2009, attack at Fort Hood, Texas. An Army psychiatrist was charged with killing 13 soldiers and civilians and wounding more than two dozen others.