Gunman in newsroom shooting gets 5 life terms without parole
ANNAPOLIS, Md. — The man who killed five Capital Gazette employees was sentenced to the maximum penalty allowable under law Tuesday, bringing an end to the court case stemming from the mass shooting that shocked this city and ensuring that the gunman spends the rest of his life in prison.
Survivors of the June 28, 2018, newsroom attack, their family members and the relatives of the people who died that day — Gerald Fischman, Rob Hiaasen, John McNamara, Rebecca Smith and Wendi Winters — offered wrenching accounts of how the shooting altered their lives, leaving them to live with enduring trauma, grief and palpable voids.
Circuit Court Judge Michael Wachs eulogized each victim and praised the news organization’s courage for publishing an edition of the paper the next day. He described Jarrod Ramos, 41, as a remorseless, cold-blooded killer and then handed down the sentence: six terms of life in prison, five without the possibility of parole, plus 345 years — all to be served consecutively.
“The impact of this case is simply immense,” Wachs said. “To say the defendant showed a callous and cruel disregard for the sanctity of human life is simply an understatement.”
Before the sentence was announced, State’s Attorney Anne Colt Leitess urged Wachs to make clear Ramos would spend the rest of his life in prison. She described him as a narcissist and lifelong bully who murdered innocent people because he couldn’t handle the perceived slight to his ego provided by an almost decade-old newspaper column about him.
“The judge was crystal clear that Jarrod Ramos should never be allowed to walk out of prison ever,” Leitess said outside the courthouse.
She praised the victims who spoke up Tuesday to ensure the court record documented their perseverance and honored the memories of those who died.
“That’s incredible bravery, the bravery to stand up in front of somebody who killed their loved ones, or tried to kill them, and say what they said today in court is just amazing to me, as was the bravery of the first responders in this case,” Leitess said.
Ramos displayed no emotion Tuesday or during his trial. While victims and family members stood up to tell their stories, Ramos turned his chair at the end of the defense table to watch.
The poignant victim impact statements touched on how family members learned of their loved one’s passing or what they remembered from that day.
Some recounted their last text exchanges. Others talked about how they wished their late loved one was there for the next milestone: to become a grandparent or to see their child find love, to write another romantic poem, or to see them graduate from college.
Judy Hiaasen said she struggled to find the strength to speak in court, a few feet from the man who murdered her “baby brother.” But she thought about what he endured in his final moments and tapped into her desire to tell her brother’s story.
She said Rob Hiaasen’s gift for storytelling extended beyond newspaper columns, as he was the “curator of obscure family memories.” Some of those tales died with Hiassen, whom she described as a doting husband, father, brother and uncle. It’s a loss that’s impossible to move on from.
“My little brother was slaughtered, and the impact of that loss is indescribably unique and neverending,” she said.
Oz San Felice, the mother of former Capital Gazette reporter Selene San Felice, who survived the shooting, told Wachs about the emotional scars her family has kept from that day, which she said “changed all our lives forever.”
“The texts Selene sent us while she cowered for her life under a desk are branded in our memories,” Oz San Felice said. “So much has changed since that fateful day. Medications and therapy have become part of our lives. Restful sleep is rare, and nightmares are our new normal. I pray that no parent has to ever go through what we have been through.”