U.S. man killing 5 in shooting gets life sentences

Jarrod Ramos, who shot dead five employees of the Capital Gazette newspaper in 2018 in U.S. state of Maryland, was sentenced on Tuesday to multiple life sentences, reported Xinhua, quoting media reports.

Ramos was sentenced to five life sentences without parole, plus one life sentence, plus 345 years, said Tia Lewis, a spokesperson for Anne Arundel County State's Attorney. All sentences will run consecutively.

The jury needed less than two hours to reach its verdict, according to a CNN report.

Andrea Chamblee, a widow of one of the victims, wrote in prepared remarks released in court on Tuesday that she felt like she was "surrounded by a river full of gasping, flailing people, destroyed by a gun violence."

Her late husband, sports journalist John McNamara, was about to finish his fourth book when he was killed, and had been looking forward to retirement in about three years, she said.

Ramos walked into the Capital Gazette offices in Annapolis, the capital city of eastern U.S. state of Maryland, on June 28, 2018, shot dead five staffers and injured two others.

The shooter had pleaded guilty but not criminally responsible in October 2019 to 23 counts, including murder. In July, a jury found that Ramos was criminally responsible for the attack, rejecting his plea of insanity, said the CNN report.