Capital Gazette Mass Shooter To Be Sentenced Tuesday
ANNAPOLIS, Md. (WJZ) -- The gunman found criminally responsible in the 2018 mass shooting that killed five people at the Capital Gazette newspaper is set to be sentenced Tuesday.
The shooter, Jarrod Ramos of Laurel, pleaded guilty in October 2019 to 23 criminal counts. The criminal responsibility trial–Maryland's version of an insanity defense–spanned two weeks.
He was found responsible July 15, more than three years after the shootings, meaning he would spend the rest of his life in prison rather than a state hospital.
Ramos had a longstanding grudge against the newspaper for an article they published about his stalking of a former classmate.
In an interview with WJZ, Anne Arundel County's State's Attorney Anne Colt Leitess the defendant could receive five life sentences for each of the five victims. Gerald Fischman, Rob Hiaasen, John McNamara, Rebecca Smith and Wendi Winters were killed during the attack.