Father of Colorado shooting victim: 'Nothing can make that go away'

John Larimer, who died while protecting his girlfriend from a shooter's rampage in July 2012 in a Colorado movie theater, received a portion of the $5.5 million donation fund distributed to all the families of the 70 wounded and 12 killed.

Scott Larimer waited three months to hear the word "guilty" officially tied to the fate of the man who killed his son, John, in a darkened Colorado movie theater in July 2012.

This week Larimer got to hear that word 165 times. Each time it instilled a little more sense of justice, but it didn't bring his son back.

John Larimer, a 27-year-old Crystal Lake South High School alum and Navy petty officer, died while protecting his girlfriend from the shooter's rampage at a midnight premier of "The Dark Knight Rises." The massacre left 12 dead and many others with grizzly wounds.

Scott Larimer, his wife Kathleen and their four remaining children spent the entire duration of the trial in Colorado. They also will be on hand for the sentencing phase, which may take another month to conclude.

"Right now we know for a fact that he won't walk the face of the earth as a free man ever again," Scott Larimer said of the shooter. "From what I understand, the minimum he can get is 12 life sentences. It's all academic from there."

Prosecutors will seek the death penalty, but Larimer said he is content no matter what happens in the sentencing phase.

"The death sentence, I leave that up to Colorado," Larimer said. "I'm an Illinois resident. I hate it when outsiders come in and tell us what to do here. So I leave that to them. Once I knew he was not going to walk the face of the earth, I had what I needed."

Larimer said it was "tearful" but important for the healing process to be a witness to the verdict.

"It's been up and down to be in the courtroom," Larimer said. "Some of the testimony is pure terror."

The Larimer family plans to submit at least a written victims' impact statement for consideration during the sentencing. They aren't sure if they will be given the chance to verbally testify or if they want to. There are only two issues related to their son's murder they want to remain in the public conscience.

"I'm absolutely tired of seeing pictures of this shooter, with orange hair, being the focus of this whole thing," Larimer said. "Some of these victims are suffering absolutely the most catastrophic injuries imagined. There should be no fame for this guy."

The second issue is educating people to be careful about where they donate money during times of tragedy. Larimer said many of the donations people thought would end up directly in the hands of the injured or with family members of the victims never got there.

The Larimer family received some of the $5.5 million total fund ­- which was distributed to all the families of the 70 wounded and 12 killed - but that came only after fighting for various charities to live up to the intent of the donations.

"There were a lot of charities in Colorado who were hiding behind their charters and saying we can't give money to victims, but they were out there asking people to give money to help victims," Larimer said.

The Larimer family supports the National Compassion Fund as one of the few fair and transparent organizations delivering donations directly to victims and their families.

"Now we've got about three to six more weeks, and then we get to put this to rest," Larimer said. "But what happened to John, there's nothing anyone can do to make that go away."