ANNAPOLIS, Md. — The man who killed five people at a Maryland newspaper was delusional and believed the state’s judicial system was conspiring with the Capital Gazette to persecute him and ruin his life, his attorney told a jury Tuesday, trying to make the case that Jarrod Ramos is not criminally responsible for the crimes due to mental illness.
Three years and a day after the attack on the newspaper, opening statements began in the second phase of a trial for Ramos, who pleaded guilty — but not criminally responsible — to the June 28, 2018, slayings. The plea is Maryland’s version of an insanity defense.
“Mr. Ramos is guilty, and he is also not criminally responsible,” said Katy O’Donnell, his attorney.
Ramos believed that he was being intentionally persecuted, O’Donnell said, after the newspaper wrote about a case in which he pleaded guilty to harassing a former high school classmate. Ramos also thought the courts were unfairly rejecting his defamation case against the newspaper, she said.
O’Donnell told the jury they will hear testimony about Ramos’ own description of the events as they unfolded on the day of the shooting, as well as “an eight-year backstory” that led up to the attack.
“We want you to understand the years leading up to this day,” O’Donnell said. “It’s chilling because Mr. Ramos does not believe what he did was wrong.”
O’Donnell said they also will hear from mental health experts who have evaluated Ramos and determined he is mentally ill, and doctors who will testify that Ramos is autistic. He also has obsessive compulsive disorder, delusional disorder and narcissistic personality disorder, she said.
O’Donnell also explained Maryland’s insanity defense law to the jury: The state says a defendant is not criminally responsible for criminal conduct if — because of a mental disorder or developmental disabilities — he lacked substantial capacity to appreciate the criminality of his conduct.
Under the law, a defendant has the burden to show by a preponderance of the evidence that he is not criminally responsible for his actions. O’Donnell said this standard means it’s “more likely than not” that he’s not criminally responsible.
O’Donnell also told jurors about defense witnesses. They include Dr. Dorothy Lewis, a psychiatrist who has worked on high-profile murder cases, including that of Washington-area sniper John Allen Muhammad; Dr. Catherine Yeager, another psychiatrist; and Dr. Thomas Hyde, a neurologist.
Anne Colt Leitess, the Anne Arundel County state’s attorney, deferred her opening statement until after the defense presents its case.
The prosecution also has mental health witnesses who will be testifying.
Dr. Sameer Patel, a psychiatrist with the state Health Department who evaluated Ramos, determined that Ramos was legally sane.
Prosecutors also plan to call Dr. Gregory Saathoff, a forensic psychiatrist and a chief consultant for the FBI. He also has found Ramos to be legally sane.
At a pretrial hearing in April, Saathoff described his analysis of Ramos’ ability to organize and conceal plans for the attack at the newspaper office, as well as his flexibility to adjust his plans as he carried it out, as primary indicators he was not insane.
Opening statements began one day after the third anniversary of the killings of Wendi Winters, John McNamara, Gerald Fischman, Rob Hiaasen and Rebecca Smith at the newspaper’s office in a building complex in Maryland’s capital.
This trial phase has been postponed repeatedly, in part due to the pandemic.
If Ramos is found not criminally responsible, he would be committed to a maximum-security psychiatric hospital instead of prison. Prosecutors are seeking life in prison without possibility of parole.
Ramos, 41, had a well-documented history of harassing the newspaper’s journalists. His 2012 lawsuit, which alleged that the paper defamed him by writing about his conviction in the harassment case, was dismissed as groundless.
