Defense Attorney In Capital Gazette Murders Steps Down

ANNAPOLIS, MD — The trial to determine whether Jarrod Ramos was sane when he gunned down five Capital Gazette employees in 2018 has been postponed until June. It was disclosed Monday that one of the defense attorneys had to step away from the case due to health problems. Ramos had previously pleaded guilty to the murders, which prosecutors said were linked to his long-standing grudge against the paper for writing about a stalking conviction against Ramos.

According to the Baltimore Sun, the latest delay occurs less than one month before Ramos' trial was scheduled to begin. The trial has been postponed three times, but now is scheduled to begin June 8. Public defender William Davis stated that he could not represent Ramos any longer due to "personal and medical reasons."

The defense will need to appoint a replacement attorney to the case and get him or her up to speed. Davis reportedly planned to step down from the case in October 2018 because of health concerns. He has been the district public defender for Anne Arundel County since 2007.

On June 28, 2018, Ramos shot through the office doors of the Capital Gazette newsroom and fatally wounded journalists Robert Hiaasen, Wendi Winters, Gerald Fischman and John McNamara and advertising assistant Rebecca Smith. Six other Capital employees present during the attack survived.

Whether Ramos is sane — and therefore criminally responsible for the murders — is a question that attorneys on both sides have spent months preparing to answer. Ramos will face his plea of not criminally responsible at a trial set to begin this summer.

In October 2019, Ramos pleaded not criminally responsible, which is Maryland's version of the insanity plea, and asked for the trial to be split into two parts, with the first trial designed to determine whether he committed the crime. Following his guilty plea, a second trial was scheduled to determine whether he was sane when he forced his way into the newspaper's office building and killed the staffers.

According to eyewitness accounts from survivors of the shooting, Winters armed herself with the closest weapons at hand – her trash and recycling bins – and charged the shooter, shouting for him to stop. It is believed that Winters' actions distracted the shooter so several of her coworkers had time to escape.

Doctors with the Maryland Department of Health determined Ramos to be sane. His mental health evaluation was ordered by Circuit Court Judge Laura Ripken. An expert hired by Ramos' attorneys said that after evaluating him, she believed he was not criminally responsible. But a doctor prosecutors hired, who has not been granted the opportunity to interview Ramos, conferred with the health department doctors and agreed with their assessment.

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Authorities claim Ramos harbored a grudge against the paper for years after it published a story on how he had stalked a woman, which ultimately led to the mass shooting.

In 2012 Ramos sued The Capital for defamation, but the case was dismissed on appeal in 2015 when a judge ruled nothing in the newspaper story was false. After the story was published, the paper's editor at the time, Thomas Marquardt, began fearing for his own life and for the safety of his staff.

Ramos reportedly targeted the paper's reporter and editors in incendiary letters and online posts.

Police say Ramos was found hiding under a desk after the deadly shooting when they took him into custody. Officials say he used a shotgun in the rampage.

Prosecutors in the case said previously that they intend to seek a sentence of life without parole.