the explosives so that law enforcement officers could investigate

Bomb experts had to be brought in to carefully

The photos from his apartment show that he hoped to take more lives as well, with about 20 bombs and


Newly-released photos and video offer a chilling look into the booby-trapped apartment of Aurora movie theater shooter James Holmes.

The photos were taken after Holmes opened fire and killed 12 people during a midnight screening of The Dark Knight Rises at a suburban Denver, Colorado movie theater in July 2012.

After arresting Holmes, the 27-year-old revealed to police that his nearby apartment was rigged with explosive and incendiaries intended to kill anyone who opened the front door.

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New pictures have been released showing the scene police found inside James Holmes' apartment after the Aurora theater shooting

The photos show the floor of Holmes' home littered with a complex tangle of home-made bombs, gunpowder and incendiaries - tied together with fuse chords

White gunpowder is seen above scattered on the floor, designed to catch fire and help the rest of the explosives catch fire and explode

Holmes intended for the bombs to go off in his home after he was long gone. He devised a plan to coax police to break into his apartment, catching a trip wire that would spill a thermos of glycerin into a frying pan of chemical potassium permanganate - starting a fire

Liter bottles filled with gasoline and gunpowder are spread out along the floor and would further accelerate the flames when they caught fire

The flames would cause the fuses to catch fire and detonate the more than 15 spherical bombs gathered in the center of the floor in the living room

Also triggered would be the pickle jars filled with napalm and bullets. Once ignited, the bullets would should out in all directions, tearing through the apartment

A BMX bike belonging to Holmes is propped against a wall and draped with orange fuse wire at his home after the mass shooting

Holmes had a Batman mask hanging up behind his TV, a dark object considering he chose to attack a midnight screening of the Batman film The Dark Knight Rises

Holmes was sentenced to life in prison last month for the shooting which killed twelve in the Denver suburb of Aurora three years ago

Above, an exterior of Holmes' apartment in Aurora. The top right window is the window that police broke into to gain access to the home

Last month, the 27-year-old was sentenced to life in prison for the shooting and with the trial now over, prosecutors decided to release these never-before-seen pictures to the public.

The pictures, some of which were taken by a bomb disposal robot, show the carpeted floor of Holmes' apartment littered with about 20 black spherical bombs, which are rigged together with a tangle of fuse wires.

Also seen are pickle jars packed with napalm and bullets that would have torn through the home if ignited. Nearly a dozen liter soda bottles filled with gasoline rest on the floor, along with a dusting of white gunpowder, intended to catch fire and speed up the process.

Luckily, no one was hurt by Holmes' mouse-trap of bombs. The apartment and surrounding buildings were evacuated while bomb experts carefully disengaged the explosives with the help of a robot.

The pictures also include shots from inside Holmes' bedroom, which was left in disarray the night he left to carry out the mass shooting

Features of Holmes' bedroom included bizarre blood-red satin sheets and a poster that reads 'Challenge: When life presents a challenge, take a shot'

Police and FBI teams broke into the house through the window in Holmes' bedroom. Above, shattered glass seen in the room next to a poster for the cult classic Pulp Fiction

Among some of the explosives are pickle jars packed with napalm and bullets that would have exploded and torn through the apartment when exposed to heat

Holmes' used a mortar and pestle in his dark plans. The substances inside the mixing bowl appear to be ground up black gun powder

Above, one of the about 20 homemade bombs found inside Holmes apartment, which measures about five inches wide. These bombs were tied together with a tangle of fuse

A glass jar containing bullets is seen on the left, while a remote found at the apartment is seen on the right. Holmes timed music to blare in the apartment after he left, and he hoped a police officer would respond to a noise complaint and trigger the explosives with a trip wire. Failing that, he hid a detonator in a remote control for a toy car outside the apartment, which he thought someone might play with and detonate the explosives inside

It appears that Holmes intended to blow up the apartment after he left for the movie theater by planning two ways to start the fire remotely.

The first was a trip cord connected to the front door. After he left the apartment, Holmes started a recording in his apartment that was 40 minutes of silence followed by blaring music.

He thought the noise would prompt one of his neighbors to call police and that responding officers would break into the home through the front door, starting off a series of explosions.

The other plan was a remote control that he left outside his apartment, next to a remote-controlled toy car. If police didn't respond to the noise complaint. He thought someone would see the car and try to play with it using the remote, which was in fact hiding a remote detonator.

Holmes had apparently been practicing his marksmanship before the deadly shooting which ended in the deaths of 12 people three years ago

Some black tactical gear was found left behind in the home after Holmes was arrested in the deadly July 2012 shooting in Aurora

Above, a name tag with Holmes name on it from the University of Iowa Neuroscience Graduate Program. Holmes had dropped out of the University of Colorado at the time of his arrest

Plastic bags and boxes lay empty after Holmes emptied them for ammunition for the shooting and bomb booby-trap at his home

A black tactical gear belt holds two unused gun magazines left behind at Holmes' apartment, found after the attack three years ago

Boxes upon boxes of ammunition were also found stockpiled in Holmes' apartment after the mass shooting. The brand of this ammunition is called Gold Dot

Magazines for a Remington gun are stacked in a box found inside Holmes apartment in Aurora. It appears Holmes bought more than he could carry or use in the homemade bombs

Holmes made a mess constructing the bombs on a table in his home. A poster for the comedy Anchorman has crashed onto the table in the photo above

Stickers that imitate bullet marks cover a binder found in Holmes' apartment. At the time of the shooting, he had already stopped going to school

Neither plan worked, though one neighbor did say she tried knocking on Holmes' door around midnight when she grew tired of his music. She got no answer on the door but did not report the music to police.

Gary Smith, a bomb expert with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives told KUSA about the process of securing the apartment.

'No, I really wasn't too scared,' he said. 'It doesn't surprise me to run across anything anywhere really. It's just a matter of time before something like that ends up here, kind of the way we look at it, kind of worst case scenario, you always try to think ahead.'

In addition to the booby-trap of bombs, the pictures from inside Holmes' home include a few items that shed light on his life before the mass murder.

A name tag from the University of Iowa graduate program bears Holmes' name, pointing out his past life in academia. Elsewhere, a binder is seen propped up against a backpack, decorated with stickers in the shape of bullet holes. By the time he carried out the attack, Holmes had already stopped going to neuroscience classes at the University of Colorado.

Several posters are also hung up in Holmes' apartment including one for the comedy Anchorman and another for the cult classic Pulp Fiction - which shows John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson holding up handguns. But one seemingly-benign drinking poster holds a darker meaning in the aftermath of the attack. It is a play on a motivational poster and shows a tequila shot with the caption: 'Challenge: When life presents a challenge...take a shot.'

Even more spooky is a Batman mask which was found sitting on the top of Holmes' flatscreen TV. It was a midnight showing of the latest Batman movie, The Dark Knight Rises, that Holmes chose to target.