Lawyer: Movie Theater Shooting Suspect Called Psychiatrist Before Shootings

By NBC News

Lawyer: Movie Theater Shooting Suspect Called Psychiatrist Before Shootings

August 31, 2012 Updated Aug 31, 2012 at 10:43 AM PDT

A defense attorney says Colorado movie theater shooting suspect James Holmes tried unsuccessfully to call a University of Colorado, Denver, psychiatrist nine minutes before the attack.

Defense attorney Tamara Brady said Thursday that James Holmes placed the call to an after-hours number at a hospital at the University of Colorado, Anschutz campus.

Brady says Holmes thought he could reach Dr. Lynne Fenton, a psychiatrist, at that number.

Holmes is accused in the July 20 shooting that left 12 people dead and 58 wounded in Aurora.

The detail came out during a hearing about Holmes' relationship with Fenton, to whom he mailed a package containing a notebook that reportedly contained violent descriptions of an attack.

Fenton, who took the stand Thursday, testified she was sent the package on July 19. The package was seized by police on July 23 -- just three days after the shooting. According to court documents, she never had the package in her possession.

District Court Judge William Sylvester made no decision Thursday on whether the package should be released to prosecutors, NBC station KUSA reported. The hearing was continued to Dec. 20.

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