Maryland man admits killing 5 in Capital Gazette newsroom attack

ANNAPOLIS - The Maryland man accused of killing five in a mass shooting at the newspaper offices of the Capital Gazette has admitted he committed the offenses, days before his trial was slated to begin.

Jarrod Ramos, 39, entered his plea Monday in Anne Arundel County Circuit Court to 23 counts, and the judge accepted it late Monday.

Police and prosecutors say Ramos held a long-standing grudge against the newspaper, losing a defamation suit against the publication after it ran a column about his pleading guilty to harassing a former high school classmate.

On June 28, 2018, Ramos blasted through the doors of the Annapolis, Maryland-area office with a shotgun and began methodically shooting at those inside, police and prosecutors said.

In pre-trial hearings, prosecutors said they planned to air surveillance video from the shooting that would show Ramos "pacing" and "hunting" through the newsroom during the attack.

The shooting left five dead: editorial page editor Gerald Fischman, 61; assistant editor Rob Hiaasen, 59; sportswriter, reporter and editor John McNamara, 56; sales assistant Rebecca Smith, 34; and reporter Wendi Winters, 65.

Jury selection had been scheduled to begin Oct. 30, with opening arguments set for Nov. 4.

Ramos had earlier pleaded not criminally responsible, citing a mental disorder that kept him from understanding the illegality of his actions at the time of the shooting. He has asked for a separate jury trial on the question of his competency in the case and jury selection for that proceeding is set to begin Wednesday.

"You simply cannot silence a free press, which is what this guy wanted to do," Capital Gazette editor Rick Hutzell said after the plea. "We wrote about him fairly and accurately. He didn't like it. When legal means were exhausted, he resorted to violence. Justice is for the living. There is no justice for the dead. Nothing that guy says will change that."

Lawyers had been meeting in closed-door proceedings since 11 a.m. on Monday as the plea moved forward. Sheriff's deputies stood outside the entrance to the courtroom, allowing only select people in and out.

"We've all been working this morning," Anne Arundel County State's Attorney Anne Colt-Leitess said after the hearing broke for recess and resumed at 2 p.m.

In light of his plea of not criminally responsible, Circuit Court Judge Laura Ripken earlier ordered Ramos' trial to be broken into two proceedings.

The first phase would have determined whether he committed the offense. The second phase would have focused on whether Ramos, as a result of a mental disorder, lacked "substantial capacity" to appreciate the criminality of his conduct or to conform his conduct to the law.

In the second phase of proceedings, the burden will be on Ramos and his public defenders to prove that he his not criminally responsible.

Andy Jezic, a Maryland criminal defense attorney and former Anne Arundel County prosecutor, said a guilty plea in the case is not surprising.

"It sounds like there is overwhelming evidence that he is the killer so there would be very little reason to have the jury hear all the horrific details about him shooting everybody, but I still think they have a right to a jury trial on the insanity or not criminally responsible stage," said Jezic, who is not involved in Ramos' case.

Trials involving the insanity defense are exceedingly rare nationwide, and the success rate for defendants in those cases is minuscule. Usually when lawyers invoke the defense, they have valid reasons for doing so, and prosecutors typically end up conceding that the defendants aren't legally guilty.

But because the gruesome nature of the case and Ramos' mental state at the time of the shooting is unclear, Jezic said, it makes sense for prosecutors to leave the determination to a jury.

"When something is so heinous as this, the prosecutor needs the jury to make the final judgement," Jezic said, noting that a jury decided that John Hinckley was not guilty by reason of insanity in the 1981 shooting of President Ronald Reagan and three others.

Had Ramos gone to trial on whether he committed the offense, jurors could have been shown a video depicting the attack, under a ruling the judge had been earlier after the defense team sought to block the footage being shown.

Insanity-defense statutes vary among U.S. jurisdictions. To be acquitted by reason of insanity in Maryland, a defendant must prove that at the time of the offense, as a result of a mental disorder, he lacked "substantial capacity to appreciate" the criminality of his conduct or conform his conduct to the requirements of the law.

Defendants who are found not criminally responsible are committed to psychiatric institutions for treatment and are legally entitled to be released eventually if a court rules that they are not likely to pose a danger to the public.

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The Washington Post’s Erin Cox contributed to this report.