The killer behind the Colorado cinema massacre considered a bomb or biological warfare before settling on a shooting so he could inflict more "collateral damage", a court has been told.
Prosecutors said two psychiatric exams found James Holmes to be sane, at the start of his trial over the attacks at a midnight Batman screening in 2012 that left 12 people dead and 70 injured.
He has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to 166 counts of first-degree murder, attempted murder and an explosives offence.
If jurors decide he was not prevented from knowing right from wrong because of a mental illness or defect, he could face the death penalty being sought by the prosecution.
District Attorney George Brauchler set the scene as he spoke of the moment Holmes entered the movie theatre, before unleashing tear gas and walking up and down the aisles while firing at people who tried to flee
"Through this door is horror," he said.
"Through this door are bullets, blood, brains and bodies. Through this door, one guy who thought as if he had lost his career, lost his love life, lost his purpose, came to execute a plan.
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