CENTENNIAL, Colo. — Defense lawyers for James E. Holmes, who is charged with killing 12 people and wounding dozens more at an Aurora, Colo., movie theater last summer, signaled in court filings on Wednesday that they were willing to have Mr. Holmes plead guilty if he was spared the death penalty.
Mr. Holmes, who faces 166 counts of murder, attempted murder and other charges, would accept a sentence of life in prison without parole if prosecutors consented to the deal, his lawyers stated in the documents that were filed in Arapahoe County District Court.
"Mr. Holmes is currently willing to resolve the case to bring the proceedings to a speedy and definite conclusion for all involved," his defense lawyers wrote. "It appears the only impediment to a resolution of this case would be if the prosecution chooses to seek the death penalty."
Prosecutors are scheduled to announce at a hearing on April 1 whether they intend to pursue the death penalty, and they have said they would consult with the victims' families first.
Mr. Holmes's lawyers said that if no deal was reached, they were prepared to go to trial and were still mulling the possibility that they might pursue an insanity defense.
Mr. Holmes, a former graduate student in neuroscience at the University of Colorado, Denver, is charged with opening fire on the audience at an Aurora movie theater during a packed midnight screening of the film "The Dark Knight Rises," on July 20. Moments after the shooting, he was arrested by the police in the theater parking lot, cloaked in body armor and wearing a gas mask and a helmet.
At a preliminary hearing in January, prosecutors presented three days of testimony from police and federal agents who said that Mr. Holmes had meticulously plotted the attack, one of the worst mass shootings in American history.
Defense lawyers were scheduled to enter a plea earlier this month. But at a March 12 hearing, they told Judge William B. Sylvester that they were not ready. In response, Judge Sylvester entered a not guilty plea on Mr. Holmes's behalf.
In the court filings on Wednesday, the defense lawyers said prosecutors had yet to accept their proposal that Mr. Holmes spend the rest of life in prison.
A spokesman for the district attorney's office in Arapahoe County declined to comment on the plea offer.
The filings were presented a day after Colorado lawmakers voted down a bill to repeal the death penalty.
