19 Jan Interview with Guardian for Article Titled “James Holmes Lawyers Face Struggle to Find Impartial Jurors as Shooting Trial Opens”
January 19, 2015
New York, New York
Had their final date taken them to different seats, at another cinema, on some other warm summer night, Jansen Young and Jon Blunk might be happily celebrating Blunk’s 29th birthday in Aurora, Colorado, on Tuesday.
Instead, Young alone must face the start of the trial of the man who bought up guns and ammunition during the couple’s giddy courtship in 2012, before walking into a screening of The Dark Knight Rises and shooting dead Blunk, a navy veteran, as he shielded Young with his body.
“It left a hole in my heart,” said Young, 23. “It’s hard to lose someone you love. It’s even harder to lose someone you love in a split moment, when you didn’t think they were going to just go right then.” She is taking the coincidence of the calendar as a message of solidarity. “Jon wants this to be over with,” she said.