CENTENNIAL — A psychiatrist who spent 22 hours interviewing the Aurora movie theater gunman said Thursday he believes James Holmes was capable of knowing that what he was doing was wrong when he shot 12 people to death.

“My opinion is that, whatever he suffered from, it did not prevent him from forming the intent and knowing what he was doing and the consequences of what he was doing,” Dr. William Reid testified during Holmes’ murder trial.

WATCH: Court-appointed psychiatrist says theater shooter knew what he was doing

Reid’s testimony was the first time jurors have heard directly from a mental health professional who examined Holmes for a trial that will be decided by questions of sanity. And, moments later, jurors for the first time heard at length from Holmes — in the first of what is expected to be four days’ worth of videos made during Reid’s interviews.

“What’s the first thing I need to know about James Holmes?” Reid asked during their initial meeting, in a room at the Colorado Mental Health Institute in Pueblo in July 2014.

Holmes, often answering with clipped sentences throughout the meeting, smiled.

“Could you be more specific?” he replied.

Holmes has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, placing experts’ sanity evaluations at the heart of the case. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for the attack, which also wounded 70 people.

Reid, who is based in Texas, was the second court-appointed psychiatrist to examine Holmes — and at least the fourth mental health professional, overall, to do so — making him one of the trial’s star witnesses. He strode into court Thursday wearing a bow tie and cowboy boots and then quickly threw the trial into brief chaos.

LIVE BLOG: Live updates from The Denver Post staff and others inside the courtroom

After some introductory questions about Reid’s qualifications, Arapahoe County District Attorney George Brauchler asked Reid a question about the legal standard for insanity. Reid, instead, responded with his opinion about Holmes’ sanity, tiptoeing close to a line the judge had warned him not to cross.

Colorado’s procedures for insanity pleas do not allow an expert to conclude a defendant possessed a certain mental state — such as intent — only that the defendant is capable of possessing that mental state.

After Reid’s premature announcement, defense attorney Daniel King asked for a mistrial during a bench conference. Judge Carlos Samour Jr. sent the jury to lunch early so he could consider. If Samour agreed, it would have wiped out five weeks of trial and forced both sides to start over.

Returning more than an hour later, Samour denied King’s request, but then explained to jurors the legal standards and told Brauchler to ask Reid clarifying questions.

“Is it your opinion that the defendant suffered from or met the diagnostic criteria for a mental illness?” Brauchler asked.

“Yes,” Reid responded.

“Despite what that mental illness is, is it your opinion the defendant had the capacity to know right from wrong as the court defined it for this jury?” Brauchler asked.

“Yes,” Reid said.

“Is it your opinion that the defendant met the definition of legal sanity?” Brauchler asked.

“Yes,” Reid said again.

Defense attorneys have said Holmes suffers from a type of schizophrenic disorder. In Colorado, prosecutors have the burden of proving a defendant’s sanity. In order to do so in the theater shooting case, they must show that Holmes’ mental illness did not prevent him from telling right from wrong or from acting with intent.

To clear that hurdle, Brauchler decided to play for jurors all 22 hours of Reid’s interviews with Holmes — the only of Holmes’ sanity evaluations to be video recorded.

Reid said he devoted 300 hours just to prepare for the interviews — reading through tens of thousands of pages of documents sent to him, interviewing other doctors who had met with Holmes, speaking with Holmes’ parents and even making a trip to walk around the Century Aurora 16 movie theater, where the attack took place.

He cautioned jurors that the interviews, which began on July 30 last year, came nearly two years after the attack. Since then, Holmes had begun taking a “a fairly low dose” of drugs to combat psychosis and depression.

In the audience, family members of Holmes’ victims looked at the court video screens with a mix of interest and disgust. Sandy Phillips, whose daughter, Jessica Ghawi, died in the attack, said it was gratifying to hear a doctor say publicly that the gunman was sane.

“The videos are proof he’s far from insane, in my opinion,” she said. “He seems completely devoid of any compassion for anyone but himself.”

The first hour and a half of interviews played in court Thursday involved mostly introductory questions and answers.

Holmes spoke in a low monotone, rarely showing expression.

Reid asked Holmes about his childhood and college years. Holmes recalled college parties — “Partying was, like, once a year,” Holmes said — and days spent playing capture the flag in a canyon behind one childhood home.

He described his family as a “typical suburban family,” “happy,” “loving,” and “well-rounded.” He remembered a father who coached him in soccer, a mother who taught him how to do papier-mache and tie-dye crafts and a little sister who would sometimes follow him around too much.

In the courtroom audience directly behind their son, Holmes’ parents, Robert and Arlene, took notes as the interview played. When, on the video, Reid asked Holmes how the shooting had impacted his parents, they looked up.

“Negatively,” Holmes said.

Reid pressed for more. How would Holmes feel if his son had committed such an act?

“I’d be sad, as well,” he said. “Sad for my son getting incarcerated.”

Earlier, Holmes told Reid that his parents had visited him only twice while he was in jail. Reid asked whether Holmes’ mother had cried during the visit.

DOCUMENT: Aurora theater shooting gunman’s 35-page notebook

“My lawyer said she broke down while leaving,” Holmes replied. “But she held up pretty good while we were visiting.”

“Did you get a tear in your eye?” Reid asked.

“Nope.”

“Do you ever get tears?” Reid persisted.

“Uh, yeah.”

About what, Reid asked.

“Uh, just regrets.”

“Can you tell me a little more?” Reid pressed. “Regrets about?”

“Uh, about the shooting.”

As with most answers in the interview, he didn’t elaborate.

Noelle Phillips: 303-954-1661, nphillips@denverpost.com or twitter.com/Noelle_Phillips