An admitted killer who ambushed and stabbed to death a co-worker and his roommate at their apartment near Angel Stadium was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole on Wednesday, May 13, less than a week after a jury found the defendant was sane at the time of the killings.
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Ramy Fahim was sentenced to two consecutive life terms, one for each of his victims — Griffin Robert Cuomo and Jonathan Andrew Bahm, both 23 — whom Fahim killed during an attack at the Stadium House Apartments in Anaheim, across the street from Angel Stadium on Katella Avenue, in April 2022.
Fahim, now 30, pleaded guilty to the killings on the eve of trial. An Orange County Superior Court jury last week rejected Fahim’s claim that he was insane at the time of the killings.
Dozens of Cuomo and Bahm’s family members and supporters watched the sentencing from either the gallery of the Santa Ana courtroom or remotely by video. In emotional statements to the court, family members described to the court how Fahim had “brutally killed without rhyme or reason” two young men who were “innocent victims of an evil person.”
“We no longer live in a world where monsters only exist in fairy tales or movies,” Amy Bahm, Jonathan’s mother, said in her victim impact statement.
Fahim, after listening to the victim impact statements, offered a brief apology to the family members of his two victims.
“I feel bad for what I did, I wish I could go back and change it,” Fahim said, before repeating “I’m sorry” a half dozen times.
Fahim’s attorney, Marlin G. Stapleton, asked Orange County Superior Court Judge Gary S. Paer to hand down a lesser sentence, one that would have eventually left him eligible for parole. Stapleton noted that even though the jury found Fahim was legally sane at the time of the killings, there was plenty of evidence that he suffered from serious mental health problems.
“I would just ask the court to consider that,” the defense attorney said.
Judge Paer was not convinced. He described the case as “a tragedy of catastrophic proportions…
“There is no way to sugarcoat this — this case warrants the most extreme punishment under the law,” Paer said. “Anything less would be an injustice.”
The judge said evidence presented at trial showed a high level of planning carried out by Fahim.
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“There is no doubt in the court’s mind this was a sophisticated, planned event, not by a crazed mad man,” Paer said.
The judge also denied a defense request to have the two life without parole sentences run concurrently rather than consecutively.
“There is no discount for killing two,” Paer said.
Fahim — the son of a former high-ranking official in the Egyptian government — was born in Cairo, spent part of his childhood in the United States and earned degrees from USC and Columbia. He was diagnosed with schizophrenia during his college years.
In late 2021, Fahim’s mother persuaded a friend who was one of the owners of Pence Wealth Management in Newport beach to give Fahim a job, according to court filings. Cuomo, a marketing and media assistant, was tasked with giving Fahim assignments. Fahim grew resentful of Cuomo, according to testimony during the trial, and felt he was being micromanaged.
Other employees unsuccessfully tried to get the firm’s leaders to fire Fahim, raising concerns about his bizarre and erratic behavior. Fahim, in notes later found on his computer, mused about how serial killers choose their victims and where one could bury a body. In at least one message sent to his mother, Fahim mentioned killing Cuomo.
Fahim on April 18, 2022 gained entry to the apartment building where Cuomo lived. He had staked out the building before, according to testimony, but apparently didn’t know Cuomo had a roommate.
After spending more than 10 hours in the complex, Fahim attacked Cuomo as he exited his apartment around 6 a.m. to go to work. Bahm, who was in the apartment, called 911, but was also attacked by Fahim. Both men were stabbed more than 40 times with what a prosecutor described as a “hunting dagger.”
The prosecution told jurors that Fahim had originally planned to kill Cuomo, to cut off his head, to bury the head somewhere isolated and to leave his body in a dumpster to be taken to a landfill. But when Bahm called 911, Fahim realized that there was no way he could escape the apartment and instead opted to wait for police, the prosecutor added.
In arguing for a not guilty by reason of insanity verdict, Fahim’s attorney told jurors that his writings showed someone who was caught up in “madness.” But the prosecution countered that shortly before the killing, Fahim had written that if he were caught he would blame his actions on his schizophrenia.
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