Man found responsible for killing 5 at paper
ANNAPOLIS, Md. — A jury on Thursday found the gunman who killed five people at a Maryland newspaper criminally responsible for his actions, rejecting defense attorneys’ mental illness arguments.
The verdict means Jarrod Ramos will be sentenced to prison, not a maximumsecurity mental health facility, for one of the deadliest attacks on journalists in the U.S. Prosecutors are seeking five life sentences without the possibility of parole.
The jury needed less than two hours to find that Ramos, 41, could understand the criminality of his actions and conform his conduct to the requirements of the law when he attacked the Capital Gazette newsroom in 2018.
Survivors and family members of victims, some with tears in their eyes, embraced outside the courtroom and applauded prosecutors and jurors as they walked by after the verdict.
“It’s been a never-ending nightmare,” said Cindi Rittenour, the sister of Rebecca Smith, who died in the attack. “And then hearing that today — just all my anxiety over it, all the wonderings, the unknowns, it’s all gone away now, and all I feel is just relief and happiness. I feel like my sister can
finally start to rest in peace.”
Danielle Ohl, who was a reporter at the Capital Gazette when Ramos attacked, came to Annapolis to be with her former colleagues for the verdict.
“It’s the culmination of three excruciating years, waiting for a result in the trial and waiting to find out if the man who kind of ruined our families and newsroom would go somewhere with the potential to be released,” Ms. Ohl said.
Paul Gillespie, a photojournalist at the newspaper, said he suffers from PTSD, anxiety and depression since the attack. In court, he described feeling the breeze
of shotgun pellets whiz by him as he ran out of the newsroom to safety.
Ramos already had pleaded guilty to all 23 counts against him in 2019 but pleaded not criminally responsible — Maryland’s version of an insanity plea. The second phase of his trial, which lasted 12 days, was largely a battle between mental health experts called by defense attorneys and prosecutors.
Ramos developed a longrunning grudge against the newspaper after an article it published about his guilty plea to a misdemeanor charge of harassing a former high school classmate in 2011. He filed a lawsuit against the paper in 2012, alleging he was defamed, but it was dismissed as groundless. His appeals failed.
Defense attorneys argued that Ramos suffered from a delusional disorder as well as autism and obsessive-compulsive disorder. They contended Ramos became consumed with the idea that the article had ruined his life. As his defamation appeals failed, his lawyers said he came to believe there was a vast conspiracy against him involving the courts and the newspaper.
Prosecutors, however, repeatedly pointed to shortcomings in the mental health evaluations done by the defense, which relied mostly on interviews with Ramos and his sister.
Prosecutors said Ramos acted out of revenge for the article. They said his long, meticulous planning for the attack and the manner in which he carried it out — including plans for arrest and long incarceration — proved he understood the criminality of his actions.
They emphasized how Ramos called 911 from the newsroom after the shooting, identified himself as the gunman and told him he surrendered — evidence he clearly understood the criminality of his actions. He was arrested while facedown under a desk.