Capital Gazette gunman sentenced to five life terms without parole for killing five in newsroom

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Last edited Tue Sep 28, 2021, 01:12 PM - Edit history (2)

Source: Baltimore Sun

Anne Arundel County Maryland

Capital Gazette gunman sentenced to five life terms without parole for killing five in newsroom shooting

By ALEX MANN and LILLY PRICE
CAPITAL GAZETTE SEP 28, 2021 AT 10:55 AM

An Anne Arundel County judge on Tuesday sentenced the man who blasted his way into the Capital Gazette newsroom and killed five people to six life sentences, five without the possibility of parole, plus 345 years -- all to be served consecutively.

Judge Michael Wachs handed down the sentence after hearing from survivors of the mass shooting and the family members of Gerald Fischman, Rob Hiaasen, John McNamara, Rebecca Smith and Wendi Winters, who died in the attack.

"To say the defendant showed a callous and cruel disregard for the sanctity of human life is simply an understatement," Wachs said before announcing his sentence. "What I impose is what the defendant deserves."

A jury in July found Jarrod Ramos, 41, was criminally responsible after a 12-day trial to determine whether he was sane at the time of the crime.

Ramos in October 2019 pleaded guilty to the entire indictment: five counts of first-degree murder, one count of attempted first-degree murder, six counts of first-degree assault and 11 counts of using a firearm in a felony crime of violence.

Ramos pleaded not criminally responsible, Maryland's version of the insanity plea, and jurors determined within two hours that he should be sent to prison for life rather than treated at a hospital for an undetermined amount of time. Their verdict came after roughly half a dozen delays of the trial for legal reasons and because of the coronavirus pandemic.

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This article will be updated.

Alex Mann
CONTACT
https://twitter.com/alex_mann10
https://www.facebook.com/capitalgazette/
[e-mail]

Alex Mann is an emerging news reporter for The Baltimore Sun. He previously covered crime and courts at the Capital Gazette, and before that local government for the Carroll County Times. He is a 2018 graduate of the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland.

Lilly Price
CONTACT
https://twitter.com/lillyptweets
https://www.facebook.com/capitalgazette/
[e-mail]

Lilly Price joined the Capital Gazette in 2019 and is a general assignment reporter. Previously, she was a national news intern at the USA Today and a capitol reporting intern at the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. A graduate of the University of Wisconsin, she is a native of Montgomery County, Maryland.

Read more: https://www.baltimoresun.com/maryland/anne-arundel/ac-cn-capital-gazette-shooting-sentence-tuesday-20210928-dqpmoiu6hjgylontchcvnnkv3u-story.html

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Hat tip, WTOP

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The original post:

Public Safety

Capital Gazette gunman sentenced to life in prison without parole for rampage that killed 5

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/jarrod-ramos-sentence-capital-gazette-shooting/2021/09/27/50aad956-1d6f-11ec-bcb8-0cb135811007_story.html

By Emily Davies and Katie Mettler
Today at 11:54 a.m. EDT

Jarrod Ramos, the gunman who attacked the Capital Gazette newsroom in Annapolis, Md., in 2018, will serve five consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole for the murders of Wendi Winters, Rob Hiaasen, Gerald Fischman, Rebecca Smith and John McNamara.

Judge Michael Wachs sentenced Ramos to a sixth life sentence for the attempted murder of one shooting survivor, and hundreds more years in prison on other gun and assault charges.

After nearly two hours of emotional impact statements from the loved ones of those killed in the shooting and those who survived Ramos's rampage, Wachs told the courtroom that Ramos's sentence was what he "deserves and has earned."

"The defendant did not have the final say," Wachs said. "The First Amendment and the community got the final say."

The sentence in Anne Arundel County Circuit Court in Annapolis on Tuesday marks an end to the grueling legal battle that started on June 28, 2018, when Ramos stormed the Annapolis newsroom with the intention of killing as many people as possible.

{snip}

By Emily Davies
Emily Davies is a reporter working on the local desk in D.C. Twitter https://twitter.com/ELaserDavies

By Katie Mettler
Katie Mettler is a reporter covering policing, courts and justice. Twitter https://twitter.com/kemettler

[Paladin]

1. Sonovabitch got off easy. (nt)

[Aristus]

4. I'm not willing to agree that life in prison without parole is easy.

Unless the person asserting that it is is willing to voluntarily serve the same sentence to prove that it is.

Prison does not look like a good time to me...

[Paladin]

5. Run that prison vs. death penalty test past noted author and journalist Carl Hiaasen.

His brother was one of the victims in this shooting. I'll abide with Mr. Hiaasen's decision.

[Wild blueberry]

3. Justice