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On Thursday, a jury found the gunman who killed five people in a Maryland newspaper criminally responsible for his actions, dismissing defense attorneys’ arguments over mental illness.
The verdict means Jarrod Ramos will be sentenced to jail, not a maximum-security mental health facility, for one of the deadliest attacks on journalists in the United States. Prosecutors are seeking five life sentences without the possibility of parole.
It took less than two hours for the jury to see that Ramos, 41, could understand the criminality of his actions and bring his conduct into line with the requirements of the law when he attacked the Capital Gazette newsroom in 2018.
On June 28, 2018, a file photo provided by police of Anne Arundel shows Jarrod Ramos in Annapolis, Maryland.
(Police Anne Arundel via AP, File)
Survivors and family members of the victims, some with tears in their eyes, embraced outside the courtroom and applauded prosecutors and jurors as they walked past the verdict.
“It was a never-ending nightmare,” said Cindi Rittenour, sister of Rebecca Smith, who died in the attack. “And then hearing that today – just all of my anxiety about it, all the questioning, the unknowns, it’s all gone now, and all I’m feeling is relief and happiness. that my sister can finally begin to rest in peace. “
Danielle Ohl was a reporter for the Capital Gazette when Ramos attacked and came to Annapolis to be with her former colleagues for the verdict.
“This is the culmination of three excruciating years, awaiting a trial outcome and waiting to find out if the man who somehow ruined our families and our newsroom is going somewhere with the potential to be freed. “Ohl said.
Paul Gillespie, a photojournalist at the newspaper, said he had suffered from PTSD, anxiety and depression since the attack. In court, he described feeling the breeze of shotgun pellets whistle past him as he ran out of the newsroom to safety.
“That being over now, I hope things improve a bit, but I don’t know what the future holds,” said Gillespie.
“He’s evil, he’s not crazy. He deserves to be in jail and I hope he gets all five life sentences,” he said of Ramos.
Ramos had previously pleaded guilty to 23 counts against him in 2019, but pleaded not criminally responsible – Maryland’s version of an insanity plea. The second phase of his trial, which lasted 12 days, was largely a battle between mental health experts called in by defense attorneys and prosecutors.
Ramos developed a long-standing grudge against the newspaper after an article he published about his guilty plea to a misdemeanor charge of harassing a former high school classmate in 2011. was dismissed as baseless. His appeals failed.
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Defense attorneys argued that Ramos suffered from a delusional disorder as well as autism and obsessive-compulsive disorder. They argued that Ramos had become consumed with the idea that the article had ruined his life. His defamation appeals having failed, his lawyers said he had come to believe there was a large conspiracy against him involving the courts and the newspaper.
Prosecutors have, however, repeatedly pointed to shortcomings in mental health assessments carried out by the defense, which relied mainly on interviews with Ramos and his sister.
Prosecutors said Ramos acted out of revenge for the article. They said his long and meticulous planning for the attack and the manner in which he had conducted it – including the plans for the arrest and long incarceration – proved that he understood the criminality of his actions.
They pointed to how Ramos called 911 from the newsroom after the shooting, identified himself as the shooter, and told him he had surrendered – proof that he clearly understood the criminality of his actions. He was arrested face down under a desk.
Anne Colt Leitess, state attorney for Anne Arundel County, said that although Ramos suffers from personality disorders like narcissism, he does not have a serious mental illness that would have qualified him to be declared not criminally responsible for five murders.
Leitess told the jury that Ramos thought he was smarter than everyone else and that his repeated losses in court were “too much for him to bear, so he started planning his revenge.” Leitess also said Ramos was concerned that his former classmate’s harassing article would hamper his ability to secure dates.
After the verdict, Leitess expressed his satisfaction with the result.
“It means everything to the community. I am so happy to have been able to bring justice to family members and survivors, and that Mr. Ramos will be held criminally responsible for his crimes,” she said.
The trial began last month, three years and a day after the attack that killed Wendi Winters, John McNamara, Gerald Fischman, Rob Hiaasen and Smith at the newspaper’s office in a building complex in the Maryland capital on June 28, 2018 .
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Under the Maryland Insanity Defense Act, a defendant has the burden of showing by a preponderance of evidence that he is not criminally responsible for his actions. This means that defense lawyers had to show that it is more likely than not that Ramos is not criminally responsible.
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