Newspaper shooting suspect to appear in court

Jarrod Ramos, the man accused of killing five people at the Capital Gazette newspaper in Annapolis, Maryland, last month, is scheduled to make his initial court appearance Monday.

Last week, a grand jury indicted Ramos on 23 charges, including five counts of murder in the deaths of Gerald Fischman, the newspaper’s editorial page editor; Rob Hiaasen, an assistant editor and columnist; John McNamara, a sports writer; Rebecca Ann Smith, a sales assistant; and Wendi Winters, a community correspondent.

The other charges against Ramos, 38, include attempted murder, assault and gun crimes.

Anne Arundel County Circuit Court Judge Laura Kiessling will preside over the case as it moves toward trial, according to The Baltimore Sun. Kiessling, a former prosecutor, has nearly three decades of legal experience.

Ramos carried out the attack June 28 after a long-standing feud with the Capital Gazette, police said. The newspaper had written about Ramos pleading guilty to harassing a former classmate, and Ramos had unsuccessfully sued the writer and the paper’s publisher for defamation.

The shooting rocked Annapolis, the state capital, as well as the wider community of journalists. Many media organizations beefed up security after the attack.

On Saturday, exactly one month after the shooting, thousands of people gathered in downtown Annapolis for a music festival honoring the dead.