Capital murder case resumes
Hearing today for sanity phase of trial
Pretrial proceedings in the Capital Gazette mass murder case are slated to resume Tuesday following a five-month hiatus caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, pushing the sanity portion of the trial into this summer. While attorneys have exchanged legal pleadings, it’s the first time they’ll step inside the Anne Arundel County courtroom set aside for the trial since September. Jury selection is slated to start on June 23, but the attorneys won’t begin opening arguments until June 29 — three years and a day after the killings.
However, an issue raised by the defense could postpone the case even further. On June 28, 2018 a gunman burst into the newsroom and killed Gerald Fischman, Rob Hiaasen, John McNamara, Rebecca Smith and Wendi Winters, the deadliest attack on an American newsroom. The Capital Gazette is owned by Baltimore Sun Media.
Jarrod Ramos, 41, pleaded guilty to the murders but maintains he was insane at the time. All that remains to be determined is whether he’ll spend the rest of his life in prison or is committed indefinitely to a state psychiatric hospital. He asked for 12 jurors to decide his fate.
His team of attorneys from the state Office of the Public Defender have presented a thorough pre-trial defense. It included him pleading guilty to all 23 counts charged, including five counts of murder, to avoid gory evidence that might sway a jury, subpoenas for scores of documents and motions that have called into question how prosecutors handled his case. One motion resulted in dozens of county jail employees questioned in court.
The latest defense pleading objects to COVID-19 precautions put in place by Maryland’s top judge, following statewide mandates from Gov. Larry Hogan and guidance from the nation’s public health authorities.
The attorneys asked not to wear masks while questioning witnesses, who they argue should not have face coverings while testifying. They also want to make arguments without masks and to see the facial expressions of prospective jurors during the jury selection process.
Ramos himself doesn’t want to wear a face-covering during trial or be separated from his attorneys by Plexiglass barriers erected in courtrooms around the state to slow the virus’ spread. He also objects to the public and media being able to listen to his case via a phone line, a mechanism the court system set up to protect the public’s right to observe a court case and defendant’s right to an open and public trial.
In a response, prosecutors from the Anne Arundel County State’s Attorney’s Office suggested the trial should be conducted “In conformance” with the coronavirus precautions instituted by Chief Judge Mary Ellen Barbera unless she says otherwise. Prosecutors said that they asked Barbera to allow them to sit without a partition because both attorneys have been fully vaccinated. They said the defense should reach out directly to Barbera, too.
“Should the defense not be satisfied with the result, it should seek a postponement of the trial date accordingly,” prosecutors wrote.
Barbera’s order requires face masks or coverings inside every courthouse and social distancing, two of the key measures the U.S. Centers for Disease Control recommends to mitigate virus spread.
Circuit Judge Michael Wachs, who replaced Judge Laura Ripken on the case after she was sworn in on the state’s Court of Special Appeals, has discussed the matter with the attorneys. In a follow-up email to prosecutors and defense lawyers, entered into the public court file, Wachs said he does not have the authority to overrule Barbera’s coronavirus orders.
Wachs encouraged defense attorneys and prosecutors to come “fully prepared” for Tuesday’s hearing, citing “potential postponement implications raised by both the Defense and the State in their respective filings.”
Spokespersons for the State’s Attorney’s Office and the Public Defender’s Office separately declined to comment.
“I also want to reiterate that I adjusted my schedule as soon as the above case was assigned to me, and that I am ready, willing, and able to have the case heard as currently scheduled,” Wachs wrote. “The same holds true for the entire staff of the Circuit Court for Anne Arundel County.”
In the courtroom throughout the trial will be five attorneys — three public defenders, two prosecutors — and Ramos, as well as Wachs, courtroom staff and security, 12 jurors and six alternates, the latter of whom are excused once the attorneys finish closing arguments. The defense and prosecution are expected to call dozens of witnesses, including each side’s team of mental health experts.
Later this month, attorneys are expected to argue about what the prosecution’s forensic psychiatrist, Dr. Gregory Saathoff, will be allowed to say during his testimony.
Ramos’ attorneys want to limit what Saathoff can say on the witness stand during a trial where the defense — not the prosecution — bears the burden of proving Ramos is not criminally responsible by reason of insanity. His attorneys hired Dr. Dorothy Otnow Lewis, a pioneering if polarizing forensic psychiatrist, to evaluate his mental health.
Lewis maintains Ramos couldn’t understand what he was doing was wrong or couldn’t stop himself in part because he had a delusional perception of the world because of autism spectrum disorder.
Prosecutors, meanwhile, hired Saathoff, a forensic psychiatrist contracted by the FBI. He took his investigation of Ramos’ sanity to the county Detention Center, where Ramos has been in custody since June 29, 2018. Saathoff thinks Ramos was sane when he committed the attack, which aligns his opinion with that of doctors with the Maryland Department of Health who evaluated Ramos.
At one of the hearings in late April, Wachs will have to decide whether Saathoff ’s testimony will help the jury decide the case, whether he’s qualified to testify and whether his opinion is based in fact.