James Holmes: Online ammo purchased prior to Aurora shooting

Holmes online ammo: James Holmes received six shipments of ammo from an online retailer. Bank records show Holmes had received ammunition from the website BulkAmmo.com at his apartment in Aurora.

May 23, 2013

 James Holmes received six shipments of ammunition from an online retailer, carried a platinum MasterCard and photographed the door to the movie theater where he allegedly killed 12 people and injured 70, according to court records released Wednesday.

The tidbits come in search warrants unsealed at the direction of the judge overseeing the case against Holmes, who could be executed if convicted of the July 20 shooting.

The warrants show that in the hours after the attack, investigators wanted to search Holmes' bank records and an iPod Touch. They found that Holmes had received ammunition from the website BulkAmmo.com at his apartment in Aurora. Authorities wanted to determine whether he had received other material at the nearby University of Colorado, Denver where he had been a neuroscience graduate student or at his parents' home near San Diego.

Detectives also wrote that on July 9, Holmes downloaded a U.S. Postal Service form to track shipments. That was around the time Holmes shipped a notebook and burnt $20 bills to his former psychiatrist at the university. That package was not found until after the shooting. The notebook's contents have still not been disclosed.

The documents released Wednesday didn't show what investigators found. They did say that Holmes carried an iPhone that contained pictures of the theater where the massacre occurred. Included in those pictures were images of the door jamb at the theater. Prosecutors have said Holmes entered the theater that night apparently unarmed, slipped out the external exit door then returned with his weapons and body armor.

Holmes is attempting to plead not guilty by reason of insanity. He's due to appear in court Thursday for a routine hearing.

Wednesday's release is an addition to a wider April disclosure of documents sealed in the days after the shooting. Media organizations successfully sued to unseal those search warrants and affidavits. But a handful of records were omitted from the April disclosure and were released Wednesday.

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.