Capital Gazette suspect to shoot suspect pleads not guilty

The plea, filed Monday in front of the Anne Arundel County Borough Court, comes 10 months after the shooting that killed five people.

According to the plea, Jarrod Ramos is not criminally responsible "because, at the time of the events alleged in the aforementioned case, the defendant, because of a mental disorder, did not have the real capacity to badess the crime his behavior and / or comply with the requirements of the law. "

The two-page filing was not detailed, but it indicates that the plea is valid for the 23 charges against Ramos in July.

State legislation defines a mental disorder as "a behavioral or emotional disorder resulting from a psychiatric or neurological disorder".

This includes any "mental illness that significantly impairs the mental or emotional functioning of a person so as to render the care or treatment necessary or desirable for the well-being of the person or for the safety of the person or property of others ".

The wording of the argument sets out the two-part test of madness in Maryland. According to the state code, the Ramos legal team is responsible for providing sufficient evidence of a mental disorder before the charge is transferred to prosecutors in order to prove that it is healthy in spirit.

In addition to five charges of murder, Ramos faces a charge of attempted first degree murder and 17 other charges of badault and weapons.

Ramos, 39, is accused of having entered the Capital Gazette's newsroom on June 28 and having opened fire, killed five employees – Gerald Fischman, Rob Hiaasen, John McNamara, Rebecca Smith and Wendi Winters – and injured two others.

The attack took place a few years after Ramos unsuccessfully sued the newspaper for defamation. An article in the newspaper reported Ramos' harbadment of a former clbadmate on social media. Ramos pleaded guilty to harbadment in this case, according to court documents.

Ramos is currently being held without bail at the Jennifer Road Detention Center, Anne Arundel County's maximum security center. He is represented by the Anne Arundel County Public Defender's Office and by a Baltimore Lawyer.

His trial is scheduled for November after being postponed several times.

Dakin Andone and Janet DiGiacomo of CNN contributed to this report.