An Irvine man has admitted to killing two Chapman University alumni in a stabbing attack at an apartment near Angel Stadium, but jurors still must decide whether he was legally insane when the deaths occurred. The case now focuses on Ramy Fahim’s mental state, a question that will determine whether he faces life in prison without parole or treatment at a state hospital.
Fahim, 30, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to two counts of murder with special-circumstance allegations for lying in wait and killing to avoid arrest, according to Orange County Superior Court records. The admissions leave only the sanity phase of the trial, where the court will decide if his earlier not guilty by reason of insanity plea applies.
What happened in the attack
The killings happened at the apartment shared by Griffin Robert Cuomo and Jonathan Andrew Bahm, both 23 and recent Chapman University graduates. Prosecutors said Fahim ambushed the two men and stabbed them to death in an attack that stunned the college community and drew attention across Orange County.
Cuomo worked as a marketing and media assistant at Pence Wealth Management in Newport Beach, where Fahim also worked. Bahm had no known prior connection to Fahim, police previously said.
Who the victims were
Cuomo and Bahm had graduated from Chapman less than a year before the stabbings, which took place in the spring. Fellow students and acquaintances described Cuomo as a thoughtful and encouraging presence in Chapman’s School of Communications, especially during online classes conducted during the pandemic.
Bahm studied computer science and participated in the Cybersmart Panthers GCI team, a student-led group that focused on fighting hacking, phishing and other cybercrimes. He also had experience as an intern for game-design studios, reflecting an interest in technology and digital media.
Why the case remains unsettled
The motive for the killings has not been clearly established in court records or police statements. That uncertainty has made the sanity phase especially important, since jurors must now weigh whether Fahim understood the nature and wrongfulness of his actions at the time of the attack.
A lawsuit filed by Cuomo’s mother against Pence Wealth Management added another layer to the case. It alleged that Fahim had a lifelong mental illness that created “serious difficulty in refraining from violent conduct” and fueled anger toward Cuomo and other co-workers.
The suit also claimed Fahim was given the “green light” to “harass, intimidate and threaten” employees because his mother, who was serving as a minister with the Egyptian government, had a friendship with the firm’s leadership. Those claims have not been resolved in the criminal case.
What the jury will decide
Jury selection for the sanity phase is already underway at the Santa Ana courthouse. The panel will not revisit whether Fahim committed the killings, since his guilty plea has already resolved that part of the case.
Instead, jurors will focus on a narrower legal question tied to California’s insanity defense.
- Whether Fahim was legally insane at the time of the killings.
- Whether he should be sentenced to life in prison without parole.
- Or whether he should be committed to a state hospital for treatment.
That decision will determine the next stage of one of Orange County’s most closely watched homicide cases involving a workplace connection, two young Chapman alumni, and an unanswered question about the defendant’s mental health.
Read more at: www.ocregister.com