The man who burst into the Capital Gazette newsroom before fatally shooting five people in 2018 has been found criminally responsible for the murders.
An Annapolis, Maryland, jury found that Jarrod Ramos, 41, was responsible for the killings on Thursday despite extensive testimony about his mental state, according to NBC4. The jury deliberated for less than two hours before rejecting Ramos’s lawyers’ insanity defense.
He had already pleaded guilty to 23 counts but pleaded not criminally responsible, and his lawyers argued he was not legally sane at the time of the shooting and thus should be committed to a maximum-security psychiatric hospital instead of a prison.
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Ramos was charged with killing Rob Hiaasen, 59, an assistant editor and columnist for the Capital Gazette; Wendi Winters, 65, who was in charge of special publications; Gerald Fischman, 61, the editorial page editor; John McNamara, 56, a sports writer; and Rebecca Smith, 34, a sales assistant.
The state’s attorneys are seeking five life sentences without the possibility of parole.
His grudge against the Capital Gazette reportedly began in 2011, when a columnist wrote about how he had pleaded guilty to harassment. Ramos tried to sue the newspaper for defamation and lost before going on to harass staff on social media.
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Prosecutors alleged that he acted out of vengeance as a result of losing the lawsuit. They said his planning ahead of the shooting both in terms of how he would carry it out and be arrested proved that he understood the criminality of his intended actions.
