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).
In a chilling courtroom development, a California jury has determined that an Orange County financial analyst was of sound mind when he brutally attacked and killed his colleague. The analyst, Ramy Fahim, used a “hunting dagger” to stab his coworker over 40 times, driven by grievances about being micromanaged and assigned tasks he loathed. Though Fahim attempted to mount an insanity defense, he ultimately confessed to the murder just before his trial was set to begin.
Fahim, aged 30, admitted to the killing of Griffin Cuomo, 23, along with Cuomo’s roommate, Jonathan Bahm, also 23. The tragic incident occurred in April 2022 at their shared apartment in Anaheim. The Orange County District Attorney’s Office revealed last week that a jury found Fahim legally sane, despite his plea of not guilty by reason of insanity, which had led to the trial proceedings.
As reported by The Orange County Register, Fahim acknowledged his culpability just a day before his trial commenced, leaving the jury to focus solely on his mental state during the crimes. Prosecutors depicted Fahim as having reached a breaking point due to Cuomo’s management style and the workload demands at Pence Wealth Management, where both were employed in Newport Beach.
Cuomo held the position of marketing and media assistant, while Fahim, originally from Egypt, served as a research associate, according to his LinkedIn profile.
During the trial, it was revealed that Fahim’s coworkers had expressed concerns over his bizarre, erratic behavior and poor hygiene at the office. His employment at Pence, facilitated by his mother’s connection with one of the firm’s owners, also allowed him to maintain his visa status in the U.S., as indicated by the Register.
The District Attorney’s office provided further unsettling details, noting that a building security guard had spotted Fahim on the rooftop of the victims’ apartment complex just hours before the murders on April 18, 2022. Fahim was also seen on the same floor as the victims’ apartment on the morning of the fatal attack.
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.
