Newspaper gunman gets more than 5 life prison terms

ANNAPOLIS, MD.—Selene San Felice said she often questioned how or why she survived the shooting that left five others dead at a Maryland newspaper. Montana Winters Geimer described the grievous loss she and the community suffered when her mother, longtime local journalist Wendi Winters, was killed in the attack.

The two were among several survivors and relatives of victims of the June 2018 killings at the Capital Gazette newspaper who testified in court Tuesday before a judge sentenced the shooter to more than five life terms without the possibility of parole.

Anne Arundel Circuit Court Judge Michael Wachs described shooter Jarrod Ramos' actions as a “cold-blooded, calculated attack on the innocent employees of a small-town newspaper.” Ramos used a shotgun to kill his victims.

“The impact of this case is just simply immense,” Wachs said. “To say that the defendant exhibited a callous and complete disregard for the sanctity of human life is simply a huge understatement.”

Wachs gave Ramos an additional 345 years to underscore the fact that he would never be released from prison. And he ordered another life sentence for the attempted murder of photographer Paul Gillespie, who had previously testified that Ramos barely missed him with a shotgun blast.