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Survivors Recall Cinema Massacre In Court

A woman whose husband was wounded in the Colorado cinema massacre has taken the stand in James Holmes' death penalty trial.

Katie Medley described to jurors on Tuesday the moment she realised her husband Caleb had been shot in the Aurora theatre in 2012.

Ms Medley, who was nine months pregnant when she attended the screening of the Dark Knight Rises with her husband and a friend, said she first thought someone was playing a prank.

She described the moment she realised something was wrong after someone entered through a side exit and threw a canister in the air.

"The canister exploded somewhere behind us and the gunfire started immediately after," she said.

As she lay huddled on the ground with her friend amid the hail of gunfire, Ms Medley turned to speak with her husband and realised he was still in his seat.

"I couldn't understand why he was sitting there," she said.

"I wanted to ask him, 'What are you doing', and that's when I saw blood pouring from his face and I realised he'd been shot in the head."

Ms Medley said she had to make the decision to flee the theatre with her friend and leave her critically injured husband in order to save their unborn child.

"I told him that I loved him and that I would take care of our baby if he didn't make it," she recalled in court.

Prosecutors also called Caleb Medley, who is now permanently disabled and has difficulty communicating verbally, to the stand on Tuesday.

With help from an interpreter, Mr Medley pointed to letters on a white board to respond, yes, when asked if was in the theatre on the night of the attack.

Another witness told jurors how he saw his friend Jesse Childress "jolt" after gunfire erupted.

Mr Childress, 29, was among those killed in the 20 July 2012 shooting.

"I seen Jesse laying there," Derick Spruel said. "I shook him and tried to wake him up."

Holmes, 27, is accused of killing 12 people and injuring 70 others during the screening of the Batman film.

He has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to 166 counts of first-degree murder, attempted murder and an explosives offence.

In opening statements on Monday, the prosecution said two psychiatrists determined Holmes was sane after conducting separate mental health evaluations.

Holmes' attorney, Daniel King, countered that 20 doctors who examined his client while in custody and a therapist who saw him before the shooting all agreed he suffers from schizophrenia, a psychotic brain disease that compelled him to kill.

Mr King described Holmes as "a good kid" who had no record of ever harming anyone before his deadly rampage.