Content warning: This article mentions details of murder and killing.
A financial analyst’s insanity plea was rejected by a California jury after he pleaded guilty to murdering his colleague and the colleague’s roommate by stabbing them 40 times each, a day before the trial began.
According to Law&Crime, Ramy Fahim, 30, admitted to killing Griffin Cuomo, 23, and Jonathan Bahm, 23, inside an Anaheim apartment in April 2022 because he was frustrated with being “micromanaged” at work.
Fahim worked with Cuomo at Pence Wealth Management in Newport Beach. He worked as a research analyst, while Cuomo worked in marketing and media assistance.
He initially pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, which prompted the trial. However, prosecutors told the jury that he snapped during questioning. He complained that he was frustrated with being micromanaged by Cuomo and disliked his assignments. So he decided to kill him.
Since his admission of killing came a day before the trial, The Orange County Register reports, jurors only had to decide if he was sane at the time of the killings.
Fahim was arrested inside Cuomo’s apartment after he killed him. His roommate, Bahm, called the cops after seeing him attack Cuomo. Unfortunately, since Bahm became an eyewitness to Cuomo’s murder, Fahim stabbed him too.
He reportedly stabbed both of them 40 times each ( a total of 80) with a hunting dagger.
Orange County DA Todd Spitzer said in a statement:
“The violence carried out in that apartment was not an act of insanity.”
DA’s office revealed that a building security guard saw Fahim at the rooftop at midnight, “just hours before the murders.”
At 6:50 a.m., Anaheim police received a call about “an in-progress assault in an apartment in the 2100 block of E. Katella Avenue.”
Fahim attacked Cuomo just when he was leaving for work. He allegedly planned to kill him and cut off his head. He would’ve then buried the head somewhere and disposed of the body in a dumpster to be hauled off to a landfill.
However, Bahm’s presence ruined his plan. Spitzer said:
“He carefully calculated how to gain access to his victims’ apartment building, waiting for hours on the roof until he had the perfect opportunity to ambush his victim and execute a witness in the hopes of getting away with all of it.”
View this post on Instagram
Police later found a tarp and shovel along with evidence that Fahim had already planned that he would blame a schizophrenia diagnosis he received in the past, if he ever got caught.
Prosecutors also claimed that Fahim’s colleagues at work raised concerns over his erratic behavior and deteriorating hygiene at work.
Originally from Egypt, Fahim’s mother was friends with one of the firm’s owners, and working there helped him renew his visa to stay in the U.S.
