The judge in the shooting trial of James Holmes granted a defense motion to release three jurors following a claim that news coverage of the trial may have been shared.
The 12 jurors and 12 alternates were advised not to seek out additional information about the trial in the media. They have also been repeatedly advised to not discuss the case amongst themselves.
Holmes is on trial for killing 12 and injuring 70 people after opening fire inside a movie theater showing "Dark Knight." The incident in 2012 gained national attention and the trial is being heavily followed by media outlets.
Tuesday morning, Juror 673 handed Judge Carlos Samour's staff a note accusing Juror 872 of discussing outside information with other jurors.
Juror 872 reportedly told two other jurors about events that happened outside their presence. She reportedly discussed a motion for a mistrial and the tweet District Attorney George Brauchler sent Thursday.
When Juror 872 was called in for questioning, she said her husband had called her during a break to tell her about a tweet by District Attorney George Brauchler. He was reprimanded last week for sending a tweet from the courtroom.
Juror 872 said she did not tell anyone else about the call, but explained her phone call was on speaker. She also said her husband did not tell her what the tweet was about. Another juror, however, repeated the message almost word-for-word. Judge Carlos Samour also questioned Juror 495 and asked if she had heard any other juror make statements about the case.
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Juror 495 pointed to Juror 872's seat and said that juror joked about using her phone to check news reports about the trial, during a break. The other juror to be dismissed, Juror 412, said she had not heard anything said about the media.
Samour, however, found her answers to be untruthful.
Defense attorneys also wanted Juror 673 dismissed, arguing she knows too much. However, the judge believed her to be the most honest of all the jurors involved and said "I believe what she says."
Samour decided to keep 673 on the jury, but asked for her assurances that she was not biased and said she was not allowed to discuss the questioning with the other members of the jury. He also decided to keep Juror 535, under the same rules, despite her report that she overheard the word "mistrial."
