Defense attorneys say the suspect in the Colorado movie theater shooting tried unsuccessfully to call a University of Colorado, Denver, psychiatrist nine minutes before the attack.

Defense attorney Tamara Brady said Thursday that James Holmes placed the call to an after-hours number at a hospital at the University of Colorado, Anschutz campus.

Brady says Holmes thought he'd reach psychiatrist Lynne Fenton at that number.

The detail came out during a hearing about Holmes' relationship with Fenton, to whom he mailed a package containing a notebook that reportedly contained violent descriptions of an attack.

Holmes is accused in the July 20 shooting that left 12 people dead and 58 wounded.