Irvine man admits killing Chapman University alumni — but the question of his sanity remains – Orange County Register

A 30-year-old Irvine man has pleaded responsible to ambushing two Chapman University alumni and stabbing them to dying at their house close to Angel Stadium in 2022, leaving an Orange County Superior Court jury to determine if he was insane at the time of the killings.

Ramy Fahim Tuesday, April 7, to 2 counts of homicide with special-circumstances enhancements for mendacity in wait and committing a homicide to keep away from arrest, in accordance with Orange County Superior Court data.

That nonetheless leaves the sanity part of his trial, which can decide whether or not Fahim — who beforehand pleaded not responsible by cause of madness — faces as much as life in jail with out parole or being despatched to a state hospital for therapy.

Fahim labored at the workplace of a wealth-management agency in Newport Beach with one of the victims, Griffin Robert Cuomo, 23. The different sufferer — Jonathan Andrew Bahm, additionally 23 — had no prior connection to Fahim, police beforehand stated.

Cuomo and Bahm had been roommates who graduated from Chapman University lower than a yr earlier than the stabbings April 19, 2022.

Cuomo was a advertising and media assistant at Pence Wealth Management, the place Fahim additionally labored. Those who knew him throughout his time at Chapman’s School of Communications remembered Cuomo as a considerate and appreciative scholar with an uplifting character who provided frequent phrases of encouragement in on-line courses throughout the pandemic.

Bahm, a computer-science main throughout his time at Chapman, was a member of the Cybersmart Panthers GCI crew, a student-led group that combated hacking, phishing and different cybercrimes. He additionally labored as an intern for game-design studios.

Fahim’s motivation for the killing was not clear.

But a lawsuit filed by Cuomo’s mother, against the wealth-management business, alleged that Fahim suffered from a lifelong mental illness that brought on him “serious difficulty in refraining from violent conduct” and led him to show his anger on Cuomo and different co-workers.

The lawsuit alleged that Fahim was given the “green light” to “harass, intimidate and threaten” staff at Pence Wealth Management as a result of his mom, who was serving at the time as a minister with the Egyptian authorities, was pals with the agency’s leaders.

Jury choice for the sanity part of Fahim’s trial is underway at the Santa Ana courthouse.