A 30-year-old Irvine man was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole Wednesday for fatally stabbing two men in Anaheim.<\/p>\n
Ramy Hany Mounir Fahim pleaded guilty April 7 to two counts of murder with special-circumstance allegations of multiple victims and lying in wait. He also admitted a sentencing enhancement for the personal use of a deadly weapon.<\/p>\n
But Fahim also claimed insanity, leaving jurors to decide his state of mind at the time of the killings, and they determined Thursday that he was legally sane.<\/p>\n
Orange County Superior Court Judge Gary Paer sentenced Fahim to consecutive terms of life in prison without parole, plus two more years for the weapon enhancements. Fahim\u2019s attorney, Marlin Stapleton Jr., requested 52 years to life or to make the life without parole sentences concurrent.<\/p>\n
Stapleton argued that the defendant\u2019s lengthy history of mental illness warranted the lesser punishment.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis case warrants the most extreme punishment under the law and anything less would be an injustice,\u201d Paer said. \u201cThere is no discount for killing two.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fahim killed 23-year-old Griffin Robert Cuomo and 23-year-old Jonathan Andrew Bahm, who were roommates in Anaheim, on April 19, 2022.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel bad for what I did,\u201d Fahim told Paer. \u201cI wish I could go back and change it. I\u2019m sorry, I\u2019m sorry, I\u2019m sorry, I\u2019m sorry, I\u2019m sorry. That\u2019s it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The two victims became friends at Chapman University and continued rooming together after graduation. Fahim and Cuomo worked together at a wealth management office in Newport Beach.<\/p>\n
Fahim, who had been deteriorating mentally and drawing complaints from co-workers in the office, went to Cuomo\u2019s apartment complex the night before the killings and then waited in a common area on the roof through the night before ambushing Cuomo as he was leaving for work in the morning.<\/p>\n
After Fahim plunged a dagger into Cuomo\u2019s neck and the two tumbled back into the apartment where Fahim continued stabbing the victim, Bahm retreated to a bathroom and called 911. Fahim later forced his way in and killed Bahm while he was on the phone with a dispatcher.<\/p>\n
Griffin Cuomo\u2019s father, Robert Cuomo, struggled to read his victim impact statement, breaking down often and shaking as he recounted learning the news of his son\u2019s death.<\/p>\n
Telling his wife the news \u201cwill haunt me forever,\u201d he said. Cuomo said he still feels hurt that he \u201ccouldn\u2019t protect him from this monster.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cuomo\u2019s sister, Megan Niland, said in a written statement that her brother \u201cnever failed to make me laugh \u2026 He constantly danced in and out of rooms like a weirdo and made everyone laugh until they cried.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said that while he was her \u201cbaby brother,\u201d she looked up to him as her \u201crock. He was the one I went to for guidance.\u201d<\/p>\n
She recalled coming home as a \u201cnew mom\u201d of an 11-month-old daughter to hear the child crying while her husband hurriedly packed to go see their family.<\/p>\n
\u201cI asked him what\u2019s wrong, and his expression I will never forget,\u201d she said. \u201cI asked is Griffin OK and why are you packing clothes? \u2026 He couldn\u2019t get the words out.\u201d<\/p>\n
She dropped the groceries she had just bought and \u201cscreamed\u201d in grief, she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat feeling is forever buried into my heart,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Niland said she puts on a brave front when her daughter asks about her uncle, but she has to turn away to hide a tear.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe asks how did he die and we tell her he got a big owie we couldn\u2019t fix,\u201d she said, adding that now her daughter worries when anyone gets injured. The family struggles with fear now, she added.<\/p>\n
Spencer Belt became friends with Cuomo and Bahm at Chapman and the three became roommates in college.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were the kindest people,\u201d Belt said.<\/p>\n
The COVID-19 pandemic split them up as Belt continued his academic work online. The two visited again in 2022 three weeks before the victims were killed, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI lived the next nine months in a fog,\u201d Belt said of his grief. He would often wake up at night crying, he added.<\/p>\n
Bahm\u2019s father, David Bahm, said his son was a \u201chappy child,\u201d and if he would get upset, \u201cWe knew he (only) needed a minute to see him smiling again.\u201d<\/p>\n
David Bahm recounted being there \u201cfor everything, his first steps, his first words \u2026 I taught him how to ride a bike, how to drive a car.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bahm was the eldest of three boys, his father said. He was his younger siblings\u2019 \u201cconfidante and best friend. And as the oldest he set the tone,\u201d his father said. Bahm graduated with an engineering degree and was a \u201chard worker and talented,\u201d his father said.<\/p>\n
David Bahm said he has buried most of the memories of the trauma of his son\u2019s killing.<\/p>\n
\u201cMost of my memories are dark. If they\u2019re in there I can\u2019t reach them,\u201d he said. \u201cOur family is functioning, but everything we do feels incomplete.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bahm\u2019s brother, Evan Bahm, said, \u201cI often see Jonathan in my dreams \u2026 In them I\u2019m updating him on my life.\u201d<\/p>\n
Evan Bahm said his brother was the type of person who would have wanted to help Fahim.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt first when I heard it was an insanity plea I wanted it to be true,\u201d Evan Bahm said. \u201cI could attribute it to the chaos of the universe.\u201d But he lamented the defendant put his family \u201cthrough this charade.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bahm\u2019s other brother, Bryan, said his sibling taught him to \u201calways forgive, always show kindness.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said his brother \u201cwas always there by my side.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even when they\u2019d slip into sibling rivalry and there\u2019d be tension from some game they were competing in, his big brother would \u201ccome back a few minutes later and he would always be there by my side no matter what.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bahm\u2019s mother, Amy, said her son\u2019s hero was former television children\u2019s show host Fred Rogers.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe adored Mr. Rogers because of his patience and kindness,\u201d Amy Bahm said.<\/p>\n
When he dialed 911 it was because Mr. Rogers taught them to \u201cseek the helpers\u201d when there is trouble, she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was kind, gentle, brave and steady,\u201d she said of her son.<\/p>\n
She recalled how he was given an award as a camp counselor because he was known as a comforting authority figure to homesick campers. Many people told her how they considered him their best friend, she added.<\/p>\n
The 6-foot-3 Bahm was a \u201cgentle giant,\u201d who \u201cdreamed of getting a master\u2019s degree and teaching elementary school children,\u201d his mother said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A 30-year-old Irvine man was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole Wednesday for fatally…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":70150,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164,10663,47389,5686,1637,8948],"class_list":["post-315054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news","tag-double","tag-gets","tag-killing","tag-life","tag-parole"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315054","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=315054"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315054\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=315054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=315054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=315054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}