A person who killed 5 folks at a newspaper in Maryland was sentenced on Tuesday to greater than 5 life sentences with out the opportunity of parole with 345 further years added on to make sure he’s by no means launched from jail.
Anne Arundel County Judge Michael Wachs ordered the sentence for Jarrod Ramos, whom a jury beforehand discovered criminally accountable for killing Wendi Winters, John McNamara, Gerald Fischman, Rob Hiaasen and Rebecca Smith with a shotgun on the Capital Gazette‘s workplace in June 2018.
The assault was one of many worst assaults on journalists in US historical past.
Before asserting the sentence, the decide heard survivors and members of the family of the slain describe the ache and loss they’ve skilled. He emphasised the braveness of members of the family who spoke. “The defendant did not get the final say,” Wachs mentioned. “The First Amendment and the community got the final say.”
Wachs additionally identified that Ramos confirmed no regret for the crimes and had mentioned he would kill extra if he have been ever launched. He described Ramos’ actions as a “cold-blooded, calculated attack on the innocent employees of a small-town newspaper”. “The impact of this case is just simply immense,” Wachs mentioned.
“To say that the defendant exhibited a callous and complete disregard for the sanctity of human life is simply a huge understatement.”
Survivors described the capturing as an assault on journalism. Selene San Felice, a former reporter on the paper, mentioned that whereas Ramos killed 5 of her colleagues, he couldn’t cease the newspaper. “Remember this: You cannot kill the truth,” San Felice mentioned.
Ramos had pleaded responsible however not criminally accountable to all 23 counts in opposition to him in 2019, utilizing Maryland’s model of an madness protection. The case was delayed a number of instances earlier than and throughout the coronavirus pandemic.
In addition to the 5 life sentences with out risk of parole, Wachs ordered one other life sentence for the tried homicide of photographer Paul Gillespie, who had mentioned that Ramos narrowly missed him with a shotgun blast as he ran out of the newsroom. The decide additionally sentenced Ramos to 345 years in jail on the opposite costs.
“The judge was crystal clear that Jarrod Ramos should never be allowed to walk out of prison ever,” mentioned Anne Arundel County State’s Attorney Anne Colt Leitess.
Family members of the slain cried in courtroom as they described the anguish they’ve endured and the affect the assault had on the neighborhood of Maryland’s state capital. “We lost the storyteller of our family, and as a community we lost the storyteller for everyone that is an Annapolitan,” mentioned Montana Winters Geimer, Winters’ daughter.
San Felice, who survived by hiding below a desk throughout the assault, informed journalists exterior the courthouse that it felt good to see authorities “take him away forever”. “It felt really good to be able to look the judge in the eye and also to be able to look the shooter in the eye,” San Felice mentioned. “It meant a lot to me to be able to tell him to his face that he failed.”
Ramos, who sat in courtroom carrying a black masks, declined to make a press release in courtroom when requested by his lawyer, Katy O’Donnell.
After a 12-day trial in July, a jury took lower than two hours to reject arguments from Ramos’ attorneys that he couldn’t perceive the criminality of his actions.
Prosecutors contended Ramos, 41, acted out of revenge in opposition to the newspaper after it printed a narrative about his responsible plea to a misdemeanor cost of harassing a former highschool classmate in 2011. Prosecutors mentioned his lengthy, meticulous planning for the assault “which included preparations for his arrest and long incarceration” proved he understood the criminality of his actions.
Prosecutors additionally emphasised how Ramos known as 911 from the newsroom after the capturing, recognized himself because the gunman and mentioned he surrendered proof he clearly understood the criminality of his actions.
