Aurora shooting jury quizzed after Tsarnaev sentence

CENTENNIAL, Colo. – Defense attorneys in the Aurora theater shooting trial had the judge poll jurors to ensure they weren't affected by the death-penalty sentence in the Boston Marathon bombing case.

Jurors told Judge Carlos Samour that they could still be fair to James Holmes, who faces the death penalty in connection with the July 20, 2012, shooting inside a suburban Denver movie theater that killed 12 and injured 70 others. Police and prosecutors say Holmes also rigged his apartment with homemade explosives and incendiary compounds, along with gasoline and napalm made from Styrofoam cups.

Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was condemned to death by a jury in Boston on Thursday. With no court in the Aurora trial on Friday, Monday was the first day back after that decision.

"Obviously, there are a number of parallels to that case and this case," Holmes defense attorney Kristen Nelson said in court.

Prosecutors argue Holmes is a highly intelligent young man who secretly plotted the attack for months as his professional and personal life unraveled. Defense attorneys say Holmes suffers from schizophrenia and was delusional, and that his mental illness prompted him to plan and execute the shooting without understanding that what he was doing was wrong. The trial is in its fourth week, and is expected to last another four months.