ANNAPOLIS, Md. (CN) — Jarrod Ramos had numerous contingency plans for his 2018 attack on the Capital Gazette, creating procedures to insulate himself from possible injury and ensure he killed as many people as possible, a psychologist told jurors Wednesday.
Ramos has already admitted to killing five Gazette journalists – Gerald Fischman, Rob Hiaasen, John McNamara, Rebecca Smith and Wendi Winters – but asserted an insanity defense. The trial will determine whether he will be committed to a maximum-security psychiatric hospital or serve life in prison.
Dr. Sameer Patel, a forensic psychologist at the Clifton T. Perkins Hospital Center testifying for the prosecution, said Tuesday that Ramos showed no remorse for orchestrating the June 28, 2018, attack — only regretting his inability to kill others present in the newsroom. Continuing his testimony Wednesday, Patel said Ramos had told him in about 20 hours of interviews he was “prepared for what he was ready to do and that he was ready to spend the rest of his life in prison.”
Patel testified Ramos originally sought to exact revenge on the Maryland Court of Special Appeals after a string of unsuccessful lawsuits against the paper and its employees, saying he had gone to that courthouse to plot an attack and get information on the building. Patel said the defendant had seen a schematic diagram of the courthouse from an elevator he used during his recognizance but ultimately chose a soft target, the Gazette's office in Annapolis.
Ramos had planned on using smoke bombs and incendiary shotgun rounds named “dragon’s breath” in the office suite’s hallway, Patel said, but changed his plan of attack when he realized fire from the hallway could seep into the office space and trap him. His intent with using those rounds and munitions was to make first responders believe he had employed explosives, Patel testified.
Ramos’ other plan was to enter through the Gazette’s front doors and chain them shut so staff couldn’t escape through that exit, the psychologist said, and the gunman then would have walked toward the back of the office, shooting anyone trapped in his path.
Jurors were told that he intended to shoot members of the Gazette’s community editorial board and his attack was timed to coincide with a board meeting. He also chose a Thursday after Maryland’s primary elections in an attempt to shoot political figures that he thought would be present, Patel said, naming Anne Arundel State’s Attorney Anne Colt Leitess – the prosecutor in the trial – as one of his intended targets. She was running for her current position at the time.
When Ramos got to the office, Patel said, he went straight for the conference room where board members met but it was empty, forcing him to switch to his final contingency plan of sweeping the office from back to front.
Ramos’ public defenders cross-examined Patel for the majority of Wednesday, noting the psychologist had only relied on Ramos’ own assertions about his mental state to draw his conclusions. All the psychologists testifying on Ramos’ mental state said they had difficulty completing the killer’s mental history because of a lack of collateral sources — for instance, Ramos’ parents declined to be interviewed.
The defense team argues Ramos was unable to understand the criminality of his action because of a trio of mental disorders. Expert witnesses retained by his public defenders testified autistic spectrum disorder prevented Ramos from changing his plans, saying those with the disorder have a general inflexibility.
The state rested its case Wednesday before the defense called one rebuttal witness, Dr. Joanna Brandt who previously was accused of reading a script during her testimony in concert with Matt Connell, one of Ramos’ public defenders. Connell asked a series of questions related to criminal responsibility and Brandt’s definition of that term, but prosecutors objected to every question, which the court sustained.
The trial will begin to wrap up Thursday, with closing arguments and jury instructions.
Follow Jack Rodgers on Twitter
Subscribe to Closing Arguments
Sign up for new weekly newsletter Closing Arguments to get the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and hot cases and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world.
Additional Reads
-
Russia rejects US journalist Gershkovich’s detention appeal April 23, 2024 -
