When District Attorney Carol Chambers last tweeted about a shooting in Aurora, it was about a man found guilty of a killing at a liquor store.

Chambers touted the success of her office in convicting Anthony Jahmar Gillespie for shooting to death Benigno Morales-Ramirez. Few outside Colorado probably knew Chambers' name then -- her Twitter account only has 62 followers.

But that was a month before the cinema killings.

Before James Holmes, the man with orange hair who called himself "The Joker," was arrested for spraying a movie theater audience with gunfire during an early morning screening of the new Batman movie. He stands accused of killing 12 people and wounding 38 others.

Now Chambers finds herself handling America's next big case, all eyes upon her to deliver justice.

She appeared in a dark pantsuit before a horde of reporters and clicking cameras on Monday, the day Holmes first appeared in court.

Some who know her believe this case presents the moment she has long awaited. She's a veteran prosecutor who has rarely drawn attention beyond the local limelight. This could be her last hurrah as head of the 18th Judicial District -- term limits on her office force her to step down later this year.

She's known for being tough. She's known even more for not caring how she or her actions are reflected in public.

She told The Denver Post once that she was "not motivated by people to like me."

Rick Kornfeld, a defense lawyer in Denver who has known Chambers for years, said she is someone who believes strongly in what she is doing and doesn't care if she garners negative publicity.

"That is to be respected," he said.

But it has also made her a controversial figure in the world of Colorado courts.

Alan Prendergast, a journalist for Denver's Westword newspaper who has covered Chambers since she took office in 2004, called her a maverick who is well acquainted with controversy.

Prendergast has doggedly written about how Chambers has turned her office into a "conviction machine." From seeking the death penalty in a state that does not embrace it to pursuing harsh habitual-criminal charges against chronic but low-level offenders, she has earned a reputation as a hard-ass.

"As far as prosecution is concerned, you probably couldn't be in a better jurisdiction," said Todd Whelan, who worked in Chambers' office before she was elected district attorney and later, as a defense attorney, butted legal heads with her in court.

A 2008 Westword article was headlined "The Punisher: Censured but defiant, Carol Chambers goes after habitual criminals -- and cops, judges and lawyers -- like no other district attorney. But at what cost?"

The cost was that these low-level offenders were being put away on absurdly long and costly sentences when the prison system was overloaded and rehab programs were grossly underfunded, wrote Prendergast, citing Colorado defense attorneys.

Chambers, said Whelan, goes after the most minor offenders with gusto.

"There's no deference given to any defendant whatsoever," he said.

Chambers is the only state district attorney in Colorado to seek the death penalty in the past five years. Two of the three men on Colorado's death row were prosecuted by Chambers.

That makes her an anomaly in a state that fell one vote short in 2009 of abolishing capital punishment.

"That jurisdiction is very enamored with the death penalty," Kornfeld said about Arapahoe County. "And this is a state that uses it very sparingly."

Many of the Aurora cinema shooting victims' family and friends are demanding death for the suspect. In this case, they will have a prosecutor who is not shy about seeking the harshest punishment.

"If there ever was a case for the death penalty, this is probably that case," Kornfeld said. "What's a more extreme case than this?"

Chambers told reporters this week that her office had a lot of work to do in the investigation.