Left inset: Ramy Fahim (LinkedIn). Right inset: Griffin Cuomo (Chapman University). Background: Ring camera footage showing Ramy Fahim inside Griffin Cuomo’s California apartment building before he stabbed Cuomo to death (KTLA/YouTube).
An Orange County jury in California has determined that a financial analyst was mentally sound when he attacked and fatally stabbed a coworker more than 40 times using a “hunting dagger.” The assault was reportedly triggered by the analyst’s grievances over being micromanaged and assigned tasks he found disagreeable. Initially, the analyst attempted to invoke an insanity defense before ultimately admitting guilt to the murder as his trial approached.
Ramy Fahim, aged 30, confessed to the fatal attacks on Griffin Cuomo, 23, along with a witness and roommate, Jonathan Bahm, also 23, in April 2022 within their Anaheim apartment. Last week, the Orange County District Attorney’s Office revealed that the jury found Fahim to be legally sane, following his plea of not guilty on grounds of insanity, which led to a trial.
As reported by The Orange County Register, Fahim entered a guilty plea to the murders just a day prior to the trial’s commencement, leaving jurors with the task of assessing his mental state at the time of the crime. Prosecutors argued that Fahim lost his temper after expressing discontent with Cuomo’s management style and the workload he received while employed at Pence Wealth Management in Newport Beach.
Cuomo held a position as a marketing and media assistant, while Fahim, originally from Egypt, worked as a research associate, according to his LinkedIn profile.
During the trial, prosecutors highlighted concerns from colleagues regarding Fahim’s unusual and erratic behavior, coupled with his inadequate personal hygiene at the workplace. It was noted that Fahim’s employment at Pence was facilitated by his mother’s connection to one of the firm’s owners, which also enabled him to extend his visa to remain in the U.S., as mentioned by the Register.
“A building security guard had encountered Fahim on the [victim’s] apartment complex’s roof at midnight on April 18, 2022, just hours before the murders,” the DA’s office said last week. “Fahim was seen on the same floor of the victims’ apartment the morning of the murders.”
According to Anaheim police, cops “responded to reports of an in-progress assault in an apartment in the 2100 block of E. Katella Avenue” around 6:50 a.m. that morning. Officers found Cuomo and Bahm dead in the apartment. Fahim was still inside the victims’ apartment when police arrived.
Prosecutors told jurors that Fahim attacked Cuomo as he started to leave his apartment for work. He allegedly planned to kill Cuomo, cut off his head, then bury it somewhere while leaving his body in a dumpster to be hauled off to a landfill. But this alleged plan failed to come to fruition due to Bahm being present and calling police, the Register reports.
Fahim stabbed both men more than 40 times each — over 80 times total — before cops arrived at the scene. Police later found a tarp and shovel in his car, along with evidence showing that Fahim documented how if he got caught he would blame a schizophrenia diagnosis he received in the past.
“The violence carried out in that apartment was not an act of insanity,” blasted Orange County DA Todd Spitzer in a statement.
“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,” Spitzer said. “A mental illness defense should not be used as an attempt to escape accountability by defendants who were very much sane when they engaged in horrific acts of violence and when we have the facts to refute those claims of insanity, we will ensure justice is served.”
Fahim pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree murder and special circumstance allegations of lying in wait, multiple murders, and murder to avoid arrest related to the killing of Bahm. The DA’s office says he will be sentenced to two consecutive sentences of life in prison without the possibility of parole “as a result of the jury’s determination Fahim was sane when he committed the special circumstance murders,” according to the press release last week.
Fahim is scheduled to be sentenced on Wednesday, May 13.