Media

Maryland newspaper shooter sentenced to life in prison

by Dominick Mastrangelo - 09/28/21 11:29 AM ET

The man who opened fire in the newsroom of the Capital Gazette newspaper in Annapolis, Md., in 2018 has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Jarrod Ramos, who shot and killed five employees of the newspaper during the June rampage, was found by a jury this summer to have had the mental and emotional capacity to be held criminally responsible for the attack.

Ramos, who was upset with coverage of him by the local newspaper, meticulously planned the attack and listened in the courtroom Tuesday as families of victims gave impact statements, The Washington Post reported.

Prosecutors said he killed staffers at the newspaper because he wanted revenge on the outlet after it published an article in 2011 about Ramos’s harassment conviction involving a former classmate. That case was dismissed and multiple legal appeals over several years failed.

“There were days I wondered why I lived or if I should live at all,” said Selene San Felice, a reporter who survived the attack. “I live to spread the truth.”

The jury reached a verdict in less than two hours, the Post reported.

Ramos’s attorneys had argued that his three mental disorders led to his obsession with the newspaper and Maryland legal process after he lost a defamation suit against the Capital Gazette after it covered details of a harassment suit he faced.

Last month, Ramos wrote a letter to Anne Arundel Circuit Court Judge Michael Wachs asking that his sentencing be expedited, which Wachs denied.

Tags Capital Gazette shooting Defamation Maryland