Families of Aurora massacre victims erupted in anger Friday when a judge postponed the arraignment of suspect James Holmes — with one yelling out, "Rot in hell, Holmes!"

At least four relatives or survivors stalked out when Holmes was granted two more months to decide how to plead to charges he murdered 12 people and wounded dozens during a shooting rampage at a Batman movie last summer.

Others cried in the courtroom or cursed in the corridor outside.

Steve Hernandez, father of murder victim Rebecca Wingo, vented his fury with the "rot in hell" outburst as the case was adjourned — and was gently admonished by the judge.

"I am terribly sorry for your loss. I can only begin to imagine the emotions that are raging," Chief Judge William Sylvester said as he repeated the decorum order that barred any outburst. Hernandez apologized and promised not to disrupt future proceedings.

It’s been almost six months since Holmes was arrested outside the Century 16 multiplex, and relatives are anxious for the case to move along.

They were hopeful that might happen when Chief Judge William Sylvester ruled late Thursday that prosecutors have enough evidence to put Holmes, 25, on trial and scheduled the arraignment for Friday.

But the defense said Holmes wasn't ready to enter a plea and convinced the court to postpone the arraignment until March 12 – over the objections of prosecutors, who said 84 victims or their loved ones opposed a delay.

Sylvester said that with more than 30,000 pages of documents and 220 DVDs filed in the case, both sides need more time to prepare and that forcing Holmes to enter a plea now could create grounds for an appeal.

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Steve Hernandez, right, father of slain Aurora victim Rebecca Wingo, arrives for a hearing for James Holmes. Hernandez later shouted, "Rot in hell, Holmes" and was admonished by the judge.

The grad-school dropout's lawyers are widely expected to mount an insanity defense and made several pointed references to their client's mental health during a preliminary hearing this week.

If Holmes enters a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity, he will likely be transferred to a state psychiatric facility, where doctors must evaluate him and issue a report before a trial date is set, legal experts say.

Scott Robinson, a Colorado defense lawyer who closely follows the case, said Holmes’ team could use the two-month delay to have their own mental-health experts evaluate him and help them prepare for the court-ordered exams.

Ed Andrieski / AP

Spectators arrive for a court proceeding for Aurora theater shooting suspect James Holmes on Friday. The judge granted a defense motion to delay the arraignment of Holmes until March 12, provoking anger from victims' relatives.

Many in the victims' camp are adamant in their belief that Holmes is not legally insane. They were particularly struck by new evidence at the hearing that suggested his planning may have begun two months before the July 20 slaughter.

Prosecutors revealed how he amassed an arsenal of weapons, booby-trapped his apartment and took photos of the Century 21 theater well before the ambush.

"He’s not insane. He's evil and there’s a difference," said Theresa Hoover, whose 18-year-old son, A.J. Boik, was killed.

Once Holmes enters a plea, the clock starts running on prosecutors, who have 63 days to decide whether they will seek the death penalty – which would drag out the case even longer.

Sam Soudani, whose 23-year-old daughter was gravely wounded at the theater, said he’s willing to wait if it means Holmes winds up on death row.

“The law has to take its course, and unfortunately, it will take a long time,” Soudani said. “I hate to say it, but he has his rights.”

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Updated at 10 p.m. ET: James Eagan Holmes appeared in court for the first time Monday after he was arrested last week in the deaths of 12 people in a mass shooting at a sold-out movie theater in Aurora, Colo.

Arapahoe County District Judge William Sylvester ordered Holmes, 24, held without bond, saying there was probable cause to continue the case. He told Holmes he was accused of having killed 12 people and wounded 58 others early Friday in a crowded theater that was showing the premiere of the new Batman movie, "The Dark Knight Rises."

Twenty-one people remained in area hospitals Monday, 10 of them in critical condition. Two were released.

Sylvester set a hearing on formal charges — expected to be multiple counts of first-degree murder — for next Monday at 9:30 a.m. (11:30 a.m. ET). Holmes — wearing a red prison jump suit and accompanied by Tamara Brady, one of his public defenders — said nothing during the hearing. He mostly looked down at the table under a shock of dyed bright red hair and occasionally raised his eyebrows in a quizzical expression.

Arapahoe County Sheriff's Office via KUSA-TV

James Eagan Holmes in his police booking photo.

Relatives of some of the victims leaned forward to catch their first glimpse of Holmes. Some stared at him the entire hearing, including Tom Teves, the father of Alex Teves, who was killed in the shooting. Two women held hands tightly, one shaking her head.

Afterward, Holmes was led away in handcuffs to his cell, where he is being held in isolation, said Carol Chambers, district attorney for the 18th Judicial District, which includes Arapahoe County.

Parents stand behind son
Holmes' father, Robert Holmes of Rancho Penasquitos, Calif., flew to Colorado to see James Holmes the day after the shootings. Monday, an attorney for Robert Holmes and his wife, Arlene, said that "their hearts go out to the victims and their families" and that they stood behind their son.

The attorney, Lisa Damiani, a prominent criminal and employment law specialist in San Diego, sought to clear up what she said were misconceptions that Arlene Holmes had said her son was the gunman.

ABC News reported Friday that when it called Arlene Holmes on Friday morning, "she told ABC News her son was likely the alleged culprit, saying, 'You have the right person.'" Many news organizations, including NBC News, referred to ABC's report.

In a statement read by Damiani, Arlene Holmes said the ABC reporter called her at 5:45 a.m. and asked whether she was Arlene Holmes and whether she had a son who lived in Aurora, Colo.

"I answered yes, you have the right person," Holmes said, according to the statement. "I was referring to myself."

Holmes said that she explicitly told the ABC reporter that she couldn't comment "because I did not know if the person he was talking about was my son, and I would need to find out."

Damiani reminded reporters that "it's important that a case of this significance be tried in the courthouse, in the courtroom, and not in the media."

Otherwise, Damiani said, the family has no plans to talk about James Holmes or their relationship.

No 'slam dunk'
The next step in the proceedings comes in a week, when Holmes will be back in court to hear the formal charges against him. After that, the case could wind on for months or even years.

Asked about the seemingly overwhelming evidence that investigators had amassed against Holmes, Chambers cautioned that "there is no such thing as a slam-dunk case."

"We will work very hard on this case just as we would on any other case," she told reporters after the hearing.

"A case like this involves so many different aspects — (prosecutors will) be working with the police, dealing with things such as search warrants, locations, is there enough evidence to proceed," James Peters, a former Arapahoe County prosecutor, told NBC station KUSA of Denver. Peters won the conviction of a man who killed killed four people at an Aurora restaurant in 1993.

Aurora Police Chief Dan Oates said it could take months simply to determine a motive. He said police were working with FBI behavioral analysts.

Then the state must decide whether to seek the death penalty.

Chambers wouldn't say whether prosecutors intended to pursue that option. A capital case would "impact the victims' families for years, and we would want to get their input on that," she said.

Chambers is term-limited, which means that decision could be made by Chambers' successor, Republican George Brauchler or Democrat Ethan Feldman, one of whom voters will elect in November.

Holmes' defense strategy could delay a resolution even longer. If Holmes were to plead not guilty by reason of insanity, or if his attorneys were to argue that he is incompetent to stand trial, proceedings could stretch for years — perhaps indefinitely.

A defendant is considered incompetent if he's unable to understand the charges against him or to assist in his own defense. Legal proceedings must stop until the defendant is restored to competency.

Scott H. Robinson, a prominent Denver criminal defense attorney, said Holmes' lawyers might have no choice.

If they believe their client is incompetent, they have "an absolute duty to raise competency and [request] a competency evaluation," he said.

Six-year-old girl, sailor, aspiring broadcaster among Colorado shooting victims

Suspect's apartment combed
Holmes told police that he had booby-trapped his apartment, and it took more than 24 hours for them to disarm the explosives he had left behind. They included dozens of softball-sized fireworks charges filled with explosive powder, all of them wired in a circle. In the middle were two jars with a liquid and a small device with a flashing red light.

With technicians now able to move freely about the unit, the investigation has picked up speed.

Shocked Aurora vows, 'We will not forget' victims of theater shooting rampage

Aurora police, assisted by technical experts from the FBI and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, were poring over the physical and documentary evidence. Meanwhile, investigators continued to interview associates of Holmes and at least 80 people who have called in tips.

After having initially warned police about the trap in his apartment, Holmes stopped cooperating and was offering no help, police said.

Chris Hansen, Kate Snow and Mike Taibbi of NBC News and Raquel Villanueva of NBC station KUSA of Denver contributed to this report.

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Updated at 10:14 p.m. ET: A graduate student's attack in a sold-out theater near Denver showing the new Batman movie, in which 12 people were killed early Friday, was the culmination of two months of meticulous planning that included a potentially deadly booby trap left in the suspect's home for investigators, authorities said.

Fifty-eight other people were injured, many of them seriously, in the shootings shortly after midnight at the Century 16 Movie Theaters complex in Aurora, Colo. Earlier reports had said 59 people were injured, but police revised that number at a news conference Friday night. All but a small handful of the injured had been shot, Police Chief Dan Oates said.

Thirty people remained in area hospitals Friday night, 11 of them in critical condition, after a carefully orchestrated attack in which the suspect, identified as James Eagan Holmes, 24, bought all of his weapons and ammunition legally beginning in May.

Late Friday, the family of Alex Sullivan, 27, said in a statement that he was among the dead, the Denver Post and The Associated Press reported. Heart-wrenching photographs taken earlier Friday showed Sullivan's father, Tom, grieving and pleading for information about his son. 

Federal and local enforcement officials said Holmes was sheathed in a helmet, a gas mask, a tactical bulletproof vest, throat and groin protectors and tactical gloves. All of the gear was black.

Holmes was armed with two .40-caliber Glock handguns, a Remington 870 single-barrel pump shotgun, a Smith & Wesson AR-15 assault-style rifle and as many as 6,000 rounds of ammunition, Oates said.

The scene also appeared to have been specially targeted for maximum carnage — the local premiere of one of the most eagerly awaited movies of the year, "The Dark Knight Rises," the third in the series of director Christopher Nolan's Batman films.

In a statement, Nolan expressed "profound sorrow at the senseless tragedy that has befallen the entire Aurora community."

After he was arrested outside the theater, Holmes told police that he was the Joker, a reference to one of the most prominent villains in the Batman canon, a law enforcement official told NBC News on condition of anonymity. (The official said the suspect had dyed his hair red or orange, which isn't typically associated with the green-haired Joker character, who doesn't appear in "The Dark Knight Rises.")

Aurora police said Holmes also booby-trapped his apartment with an elaborate network of wire-connected bottles containing an unknown liquid, presumably intended to go off when authorities arrived to canvass his home.

Holmes told police about the trap before they arrived, however, and investigators hadn't entered the apartment Friday night. They were analyzing gases and examining photographs of the scene to figure out how to deal with the materials and had decided to defer any action until Saturday at the earliest, Oates said.

"It's not something I've ever seen before," said Oates, who said that the area was evacuated and that police were expected to remain on the scene "for hours or days."

Holmes, a graduate student from San Diego who was in the process of withdrawing from the neuroscience program at the University of Colorado-Denver medical school, put up no resistance when he was arrested in a parking lot at the theater, police said. He retained legal counsel and wasn't answering investigators' questions, they said.

"We are confident he acted alone," Oates said of Holmes, who was scheduled to appear in Arapahoe County District Court on Monday morning to face unspecified charges. Authorities refused to speculate on his possible motive.

One of those killed was Jessica Ghawi, a sportswriter who survived a June 2 mass shooting at a mall in Toronto in which two people were killed and seven others were injured. Ghawi blogged under the name Jessica Redfield.

Defense officials told NBC News that a sailor at Buckley Air Force Base in Aurora was missing and presumed to have been killed. A second sailor and two airmen from Buckley were also shot. Their identities and conditions weren't available.

'Mass chaos'
Authorities said the gunman appeared at the front of the theater at 12:39 a.m. (2:39 a.m. ET), about 20 minutes into the film, and released two canisters of gas. Witnesses told reporters that the gunfire erupted during a shootout scene. Authorities responded within a minute and a half, Oates said.

"It was mass chaos," witness Jennifer Seeger told TODAY. The gunman shot the ceiling and then "he threw in the gas can, and then I knew it was real."

Witnesses said the gunman entered the theater at Aurora Town Center through an emergency exit door. But a federal law enforcement official told The Associated Press that the suspect bought a ticket and went in as part of the crowd. He is believed to have propped open an exit door as the movie was playing, the official said.

Watch live video from KUSA

Aurora is a suburb less than 10 miles east of downtown Denver and just 15 miles northeast of Littleton, near the scene of what had been the worst mass shooting in Colorado: the Columbine High School massacre on April 20, 1999, when two gunmen killed 12 fellow students and a teacher and wounded 26 other people before killing themselves.

Three of the suspect's four weapons were found in his white Hyundai parked at the back entrance to the theater; one of the handguns was found in the theater.

Law enforcement officials told NBC News that the weapons were legally bought from local stores of two national chains — Gander Mountain Guns and Bass Pro Shop — beginning in May.

Oates didn't say what kind of magazines were used, but he said "many, many rounds were fired." Some rounds penetrated an adjoining theater and injured at least one person, he said.

James Yacone, the FBI's agent in charge in Denver, said there was no indication of a link to terrorism. Holmes wasn't on any federal law enforcement watch lists, authorities told NBC News, and Oates said he had no police record beyond a speeding ticket last year.

The few people who had any contact with Holmes described him as a recluse who lived with his shades drawn and who, when he did meet someone, revealed little.

"He kept to himself, didn't like a lot of attention," said Melvin Evans, a neighbor.

Another neighbor, Kaitlyn Fonzi, said, "We never heard anything abnormal until midnight this morning, when we heard loud techno music playing" from Holmes' apartment.

'Pain and grief ... too intense for words'
Gov. John Hickenlooper said at a news conference that "our hearts are broken as we think of the friends and family of the victims of this senseless tragedy." He called the shootings "the act of an apparently very deranged mind."

"The pain and grief (are) too intense for words, but we can't let it keep us from our lives," Hickenlooper said. "We are going to come back stronger from this, but it is obviously going to be a very long process."

President Barack Obama cut short a campaign visit to Florida to return to Washington ahead of schedule.

He called for reflection after the attack. "There are going to be other days for politics," Obama said during an abbreviated appearance in Fort Myers, where he led a moment of silence on behalf of the victims and their families.

More on this story from breakingnews.com

At a campaign appearance in Bow, N.H., Republican presidential challenger Mitt Romney said: "Today is to remember and reach out and remember our blessings in life. Each of us will hold family close and spend a little less time thinking about the worries of our day and helping those in need of compassion."

'We need to go'
Moviegoers described scenes of chaos and terror inside the movie theater.

Tanner Coon, who was in the theater with a friend and the friend's 12-year-old brother when the shooter came in, said he told them to "get down" when he heard the gunshots.

The shooter fired off about 20 rounds and there was then a pause and a "period of quietness when everybody started running out," Coon said.

"I slipped on some blood and landed on a lady. I shook her and said, 'We need to go.' There was no response, so I presume she was dead," Coon said.

PhotoBlog: More images from the scene of the shooting in Aurora

Paris premiere canceled
Film critics have noted the dark, anxiety-fueled themes of "The Dark Knight Rises," which reminded some of the atmosphere in the days after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. It had been projected to be one of the biggest films of the year, and theaters around the world began showing it at 12:01 a.m. Friday.

"Warner Bros. and the filmmakers are deeply saddened to learn about this shocking incident. We extend our sincere sympathies to the families and loved ones of the victims at this tragic time," the studio said in a statement.

Chris Dodd, chairman of the Motion Picture Association of America, said in a statement:

"We share the shock and sadness of everyone in the motion picture community at the news of this terrible event. We extend our prayers and deepest sympathies to the victims, their loved ones and all those affected by this tragedy."

Miguel Almaguer, F. Brinley Bruton, Kristen Dahlgren, Bill Dedman, Jay Gray, Charles Greene, Garrett Haake, Ian Johnston, Zoya Khan, Jim Miklaszewski, Daniel Strieff, Mike Taibbi, Shawna Thomas, David Wyllie and Edgar Zuniga of NBC News and NBC stations KUSA of Denver and KNSD of San Diego contributed to this report.

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