CENTENNIAL, Colo. (AP) – Mary Theresa Hoover moved out of the home where her son grew up because it was too hard to live there without him. Sandy Phillips and her husband no longer celebrate Thanksgiving because it falls so near her daughter’s Nov. 27 birthday.
And Amanda Medek can’t bear to watch movies in a theater since her little sister was shot to death at a midnight premiere of a Batman film.
They and other relatives of the 12 people killed in a Colorado movie theater tearfully told jurors how the July 2012 shooting upended their lives, leaving gaping holes in family photos and unfilled seats at Christmas dinner tables.
More family members will take the stand Wednesday, as prosecutors make their final push to have James Holmes sentenced to death for murdering 12 people and wounding or injuring 70 others in the crowded auditorium.
“I have PTSD, my brain is mush, I can’t retain things like I used to, I cry every day still, probably always will,” Phillips said as she spoke about the death of her daughter, Jessica Ghawi, 24, an aspiring sports broadcaster who swapped loving text messages with her mother just before she was killed. She and her husband, Lonnie, cling to each other for support now but “we don’t plan on a future anymore,” Phillips said.