Lawyers in Capital Gazette shooting pick jury as process highlights community connections, trauma

BALTIMORE — The judge presiding over the Capital Gazette shooting case had identified enough fair jurors for the attorneys to seat a jury Friday, narrowing a group of approximately 200 prospective jurors to a pool of 80 before the final jury was selected.

Almost three years after the mass shooting, the trial is imminent for the man who killed Gerald Fischman, Rob Hiaasen, John McNamara, Rebecca Smith and Wendi Winters.

After a two-day process defined by the challenges of finding fair jurors from the close-knit community, prosecutors and defense lawyers Friday afternoon chose from a pool that included journalists, nurses, scientists, a bartender and two people who either subscribe or read The Capital.

By 4 p.m. Friday, a jury of eight men and four women was seated, as well as six alternates made up of four women and two men.

People arrived for jury duty in groups of 50 in the morning and afternoon Wednesday and Thursday. For each group, Circuit Judge Michael Wachs read aloud a list of 40 questions aimed at gauging people’s knowledge about the highly publicized case and teasing out biases about guns, mental health, journalists and the insanity defense.

Before questioning the jurors, Wachs laid out the stakes: Jarrod Ramos pleaded guilty to all his crimes and “as a result, the only issue for the jury to determine in this case is whether he is or is not criminally responsible.”

The panel will be charged with deciding whether Ramos during the attack was suffering from a mental disorder that prevented him from understanding killing people was illegal or precluded him from stopping himself. Its verdict will result in him spending the rest of his life in prison or being committed indefinitely to a psychiatric hospital, where there’s at least a chance at release.

Almost all prospective jurors acknowledged knowing something about the case from reading, listening to or watching the news on June 28, 2018, or in the direct aftermath of the attack on the Capital Gazette, which is part of Baltimore Sun Media. In more personal follow-up questioning, most said their knowledge was limited to the preliminary coverage.

Still, some had come to conclusions about Ramos’ culpability.

One prospective juror said he learned the gunman barricaded the side door to the newsroom.

“I don’t think that has something to do with an insane person,” he said.

“He definitely meant it,” added a female police cadet.

“In my mind, in my heart,” one woman said, “if you kill somebody, you go to jail.”

The three were among the legions Wachs dropped from the pool for their biases or preconceived notions of the case. Prepaid travel, language barriers and intense aversion to graphic evidence also resulted in dismissals. Wachs explained video of the shooting from newsroom cameras and autopsy photos would be presented to the jury and some jurors said they couldn’t even stand a horror film.

Another trend emerged, too. Even in a random pool of approximately 200 of the county’s roughly 580,000 residents, it was difficult to escape the reach of The Capital and its journalists — slain or still writing.

To parse out conflicts of interest, Wachs read out loud the names of all the casualties of the crime, survivors and people who would be called as witnesses.

A person who worked in local athletics stood for McNamara, the acclaimed sportswriter.

Nine people stood for Winters, the prolific community storyteller. The connections ranged from Facebook acquaintances to subjects of her stories, teachers at schools where Winters highlighted exceptional students to members of her church or residents of her neighborhood.

One woman said Winters profiled two of her children for her Teen of the Week series and walked through their house for Home of the Week. After a family tragedy, Winters visited this woman. The family had since attended multiple blood drives arranged in Winters’ honor. The juror assured she could remain impartial and Wachs was inclined to keep her in the pool.

But Public Defender Matt Connell made an impassioned case why the woman should be dismissed, noting the close connection and the potential for seeing graphic evidence of her friend.

It was one of the only times Wachs dismissed a juror at the defense’s request. The pool includes four people who claimed a connection to Winters, including one person who attended Winters’ memorial at Maryland Hall.

Plenty of prospective jurors had ties to local law enforcement, including friends of officers first to respond to the active shooter at 888 Bestgate Road. One person was related to the Anne Arundel County Police Department’s resident mental health expert. Another person coached one of the state’s attorney’s sons. One man was the son and namesake of a correctional officer set to testify.

Wachs asked questions about people who had strong feelings about mass shootings and a fraction of people stood up.

A college student said she “grew up in the era of mass shootings” and was especially affected by the Parkland High School shooting, which occurred while she was in high school.

“My wife’s a teacher, you think about that sort of thing,” said another man.

What also became clear was that the trauma of the Annapolis newspaper shooting spread far wider than those affiliated with it — and has not yet to wear off.

Years later, multiple jurors still remembered where they were when Ramos rattled the whole community with his crimes.

One man who worked at Anne Arundel Medical Center remembered driving down Bestgate Road to get to work, scores of flashing lights and sirens rushing by. Another was eating lunch at a restaurant nearby. Multiple jurors remembered hearing the news helicopters circling above.

Others had doctors appointments scheduled in the office building and later heard from medical staff who barricaded their doors to stay safe. One woman recalled buying a house that day from a woman affiliated with the newspaper and the shock she showed after losing a colleague in the attack.

“My doctor’s office was in that building,” another potential juror said. “It was a community event.”

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