Accused Colorado gunman to be in court Thursday

CENTENNIAL, Colo. (Reuters) - Accused Colorado gunman James Holmes, charged in the July movie theatre shootings that killed 12 people and wounded 58, was expected in court on Thursday in a hearing on whether a parcel he sent to a university psychiatrist falls under patient-doctor privilege.

The hearing comes after the Denver Post reported on Wednesday that prosecutors had filed a motion to add 10 charges against Holmes, 24, and have asked to amend 17 others.

The judge in the case has ordered nearly all court filings sealed, and the newspaper said the nature of the additional charges was not immediately clear from a register of court actions.

Holmes already faces 24 counts of first-degree murder and 116 counts of attempted murder. Under Colorado law, the doubling of charges allows prosecutors two potential pathways to secure a conviction.

Holmes, a former neuroscience graduate student, is accused of opening fire on July 20 at a midnight screening of the recent Batman movie "The Dark Knight Rises" in Aurora, a Denver suburb. In addition to the 12 people who died, 58 more were wounded in the attack.

University of Colorado psychiatrist Lynne Fenton testified at an earlier hearing that she treated Holmes more than a month before the rampage, but that their professional relationship had ended before he mailed the package to her a day before the massacre.

Holmes' lawyers say the package and its contents are confidential and should not be seen by prosecutors.

Prosecutors have depicted Holmes as a young man whose once promising academic career was in tatters as he failed graduate school oral board exams in June and one of his professors suggested he may not have been a good fit for his competitive Ph.D. program.

They have said that Holmes lost his access to the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus after making unspecified threats to a professor on June 12, after which he began a voluntary withdrawal from his program.

They said Holmes began "a detailed and complex plan" to commit murder and obtain an arsenal of guns and protective armour after he was denied access to campus facilities.

Holmes' attorney Daniel King, who analysts said appeared to be laying the groundwork for a possible insanity defence, has said his client suffers from an unspecified mental illness and had tried to get help before the shooting.

Previous media reports have said Fenton reported her concerns about Holmes to a campus threat assessment team and a campus police officer.

(Reporting by Keith Coffman; Writing by Mary Slosson; Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Vicki Allen)

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