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BySadieGurman The Associated Press CENTENNIAL, COLO. Ju- rors decided unanimously Thursday that the Colo- rado theater attack was cruel enough to justify the death penalty for James Holmes. His defense then urged them to spare his life, despite the horrors he caused. Jurors determined that capital punishment is jus- tified because Holmes murdered a large num- ber of victims; caused a grave risk of death to oth- ers; committed murder in a heinous, cruel or de- praved manner; and laid in wait or ambush. One factor they said prosecutors did not prove was that Holmes in- t e n t i o n - ally killed a child, but the other "aggravat- ing factors" ensure that the death penalty re- mains an option during his sentencing. Holmes was told to stand for these findings, and remained calm with his hands in his pockets, looking directly at Judge Carlos A. Samour Jr. as he read them. Prosecut ors sa id Holmes wanted to mur- der as many as he could in the audience of more than 400 people, and killed 12 only because his assault rifle jammed. The defense effectively conceded this, hoping to focus jurors at- tention instead on the "mitigating factors" that make it wrong to execute him. "Mitigation is a reason to choose life," attorney Rebekka Higgs said before the defense showed jurors photos of "Jimmy" in start- ing in the second grade, and took testimony from his teachers. "You are now responsible for that life, and you ought to know all you can about that life." Higgs said the defense accepts their verdict that Holmes was legally sane when he committed the attack, but urged jurors to weigh his illness differ- ently as they consider his sentence. The fact remains that if he were not men- tally ill, the crime never would have happened, she said. "The only reasonable explanation here is a psy- chotic break, a broken mind," she said. "We are not going to ask you to forgive Mr. Holmes. We are going to ask for your compassion, your under- standing, your mercy ... because all that aggrava- tion was born of disease, and we don't kill people for being sick." District Attorney George Brauchler urged jurors to hold fast to the facts they already agreed on. "This phase will be all about the person who committed those horrific, those aggravated, mass murders," he said. "We'll talk more about mental ill- ness, and in the end you'll be asked whether or not that outweighs the hor- ror of the aggravators you have just found. And it will not." The jurors' individual values now become para- mount. The judge said each ju- ror "may consider mercy," based on the evidence. This doesn't mean pas- sion or bias or a merely emotional response, but neither should their cal- culations be "mechanical or mathematical," he said. If jurors finally decide that Holmes' mental prob- lems outweigh the lifelong suffering he caused, the trial will end there, with a life sentence. If not, a final phase will be held, during which victims and their relatives would describe their pain and heartache. COLORADO TRIAL Theater shooting jurors OK death penalty consideration Holmes By David Klepper and Verena Dobnik The Associated Press NEW YORK Gov. Andrew Cuomo wants to have it his way with New York's fast- food industry — and restau- rant owners aren't loving it. Franchise owners say they're considering a law- suit against Cuomo's plan to raise the minimum wage in their eateries to $15 an hour, arguing that it is not fair or legal to be saddled with such a significant in- crease in labor costs that won't apply to retail, land- scaping, child care or other traditionally low-wage in- dustries. "Singling out fast food restaurants while ignoring other industries that hire workers who are paid under $15 is unfair and discrim- inatory, harms New York workers, and puts some New York businesses — in- cluding mine and my fellow New York McDonald's fran- chisees — at a competitive disadvantage," said Jack Bert, who owns seven loca- tions in Queens. Labor activists say the Democratic governor's plan to gradually increase the wage will improve the lives of some 200,000 New York- ers. The state's minimum wage for all other workers will remain $8.75 an hour. The increase awaits for- mal approval by Cuomo's labor commissioner, but it was endorsed Wednes- day by a Wage Board that Cuomo convened after at- tempts to raise the mini- mum wage across the board fell flat in the Legislature. Lawyers representing fast-food restaurants say their lawsuit could focus on whether the increase was arbitrarily and unfairly ap- plied to a single group. Attorney Randy Mas- tro said he will review the measure before deciding whether to pursue a legal claim. "This proposal is an irra- tional and discriminatory race to judgment to achieve a predetermined outcome," he said. The increase would be phased in over three years in New York City and over six years in the rest of the state. It would apply to any fast- food company with 30 or more locations in the state. Cuomo and other sup- porters say it makes sense to target the fast-food in- dustry because it employs more low-wage workers than any other sector. And unlike landscaping firms or child-care operators, fast- food is dominated by mul- tinational companies with billion-dollar profits. "You have McDonald's, which has had unprece- dented profits," Cuomo said on public radio's The Capi- tal Pressroom on Thursday. "They're paying a wage that keeps people below poverty." Franchisees note that most fast-food restaurants are owned by a local busi- ness person and not the national chain. And Me- lissa Fleischut, president and CEO of the New York State Restaurant Associa- tion, questioned the justifi- cation for treating low-wage workers differently. "What about a Starbucks in a Target? Are the employ- ees working the Starbucks going to make $15 while the people in electronics make $9?" she said. "We've never seen a single industry tar- geted in this respect." New York once set spe- cific minimum wages for particular industries but began unifying them in 1962. Now, only certain in- dustries — tipped restau- rant servers, hotel house- keepers — have separate wage rules. Critics are also unhappy with Cuomo for letting an unelected Wage Board is- sue the recommendation in- stead of letting the Legisla- ture debate the idea. Dennis Kessler owned 21 Burger Kings in western New York and now teaches at the University of Roch- ester's business school. He said he believes fast-food workers deserve a raise — but that the way it was done was wrong. "I think it was strategic," he said. "There would have been a lot of pushback from the industry in the Legisla- ture. He circumvented that process ... I think it's un- derhanded, slimy and typ- ical of Albany." Workers whose jobs don't fit the fast-food category had issues with fairness. Abdoulaye Ahmat, a se- curity guard at a midtown Manhattan beauty supply shop, said the same mini- mum wage should apply to everyone. "If McDonald's workers make that much, why not other people?" said Ahmat, who said he earns the min- imum wage. "All of us work long hours. A job is a job, work is work." BUSINESS Wh er e' s th e be ef ? Fa st -fo od franchisees pan NY wage hike MIKEGROLL—THEASSOCIATEDPRESS McDonald's restaurant worker Amanda Monroe reacts while remotely watching the Fast Food Wage Board's meeting in New York on Wednesday in Albany, N.Y. N EWS D AILY RED BLUFF TEHAMA COUNTY T H E V O I C E O F T E H A M A C O U N TY S I N C E 1 8 8 5 FAX: (530)528-0130 545 Diamond Avenue • P.O. 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