Thursday rave and rants : #Ep9 “Latest Ramy Fahim trial’s updates”

Okay boys and girls, here are the latest developments and updates about Ramy Fahim’s trial in the United States in tonight’s episode of “Thursday Rave and Rants” Podcast in Arabic.

This is what I ranted about in Arabic.

First of all, there was a pretrial hearing on 6 December but it was just a procedural hearing.

The next hearing will be on 10 February, 8:30 AM at the court’s North Justice Center in Fullerton, in-room N3.

The new date was set during another hearing, according to the website of the Superior Court of California for Orange County.

For those who do not know or are newcomers, we are covering the developments of Egyptian citizen Ramy Mounir Fahim who is accused of killing two people in the United States and may face the death penalty.

Ramy Fahim 

Fahim made headlines in Egypt last year due to the fact that he is the son of former State Minister of immigration and Egyptians abroad Nabila Makram.

Ramy Fahim who was living in Irving, California and was charged in April with special circumstances murders for allegedly stabbing his co-worker Griffin Cuomo “23 years old” and the co-worker’s roommate Jonathan Bahm “23 years old” to death in their apartment.

The son of an Egyptian businessman was charged officially with eight felony counts, including two counts of murder and two enhancements each of lying in wait, multiple murders and the personal use of a deadly weapon.

The “special circumstances of lying in wait and multiple murders” make the young man who was 27 years old then “eligible for the death penalty,” according to Todd Spitzer, district attorney for Orange County.

Now there is a major and interesting update that happened in the past months since we checked what is happening in California.

In late October, the mother of Griffin Cuomo filed a lawsuit against the owners of her son’s apartment complex and his employer aka Pence Wealth.

Wendy Cuomo filed a wrongful death suit against Pence Wealth Management Incorporated, Laila Pence, Dryden Pence, and Advanced Group, the owners and operators of the Stadium House Apartment Complex, for the death of her son, Griffin Cuomo.

“On April 19, 2022, Griffin and his roommate, Jonathan Bahm, were allegedly murdered by Griffin’s co-worker Ramy Fahim, a man with a long history of mental health issues and a documented propensity for violence.”

said the press release statement issued by Los Angeles-based boutique law firm Boucher, which is handling the lawsuit for Mrs Cuomo.
It is true that Ramy Fahim suffered from mental health issues but it is the first time it is being said in public that he is a man with “a documented propensity for violence.”

According to some news reports, Ramy Fahim's defense will go for pleading not guilty allegedly for insanity aka mental illness. In Egypt, news reports appeared saying that he was suffering from schizophrenia and actually Nabila Makram has posted about mental illness on her social media accounts more than usual after the crime in the past few months after leaving the cabinet. 

So here is the catch for the Pences, they can't deny that he did not suffer from anything when Ramy's defense team will go for the mental illness card. 

“Griffin’s employer, Pence Wealth Management, had been repeatedly warned that Fahim had a tendency toward violence, but they overlooked it, allegedly due to Laila Pence’s relationship with Fahim’s mother, Nabila Makram, the former Egyptian Minister of Immigration and Expatriate Affairs.”

The statement read. It means that there were signs that Laila Pence decided to overlook. Needless to say, the internet got tons of articles and photos showing Laila Pence meeting with Nabila Makram and how the former minister praised her as a "successful example for Egyptian women abroad". 

Laila Pence honoured by former Minister Nabila Makram and Chairwoman of 
the National Council of Woman Maya Morsi in "Egyptian Woman can" in 2017

The woman who was born in Suez and left Egypt at the age of 12 with her mother after the six days War in 1967 already was among the famous donors to Egypt's charity project. In the early days of Haya Karima aka "Decent Life" presidential initiative, she managed to collect $500,000 in donations from Egyptian Americans in the States. 

“The suit alleges Laila and her husband, Dryden, the co-founders of Pence Wealth, hired Fahim because of Laila’s longstanding relationship with Fahim’s mother”

Said the statement adding that the hiring process for Ramy was carried “out with minimum effort and short-circuited anything resembling due diligence.”

Now Boucher’s statement reveals that during his time at Pence, Fahim harassed, intimated, and threatened his coworkers.

If you remember a colleague of Cuomo said on 19 April in a TV interview “there was some incident at work” !?

“Fahim was also given unfettered access to his co-workers’ personal information through the Pence Wealth’s computer system – itself a violation of California law.”

The statement said adding that is how Ramy knew the home address of the late Cuomo.

Aside note: In Boucher’s statement Laila Pence is described as a Prominent Egyptian businessman with no mention whatsoever that she is a naturalized US citizen who spent and is spending most of her life in the United States. This is very low, to be honest.

The Pences have not released any statement, as far as I know, involving the lawsuit.

“Fahim, a non-resident, was allowed into the building and loitered in the complex’s common areas for more than six hours. He was even confronted by a security guard who did not ask him to leave or contact the police.”

The statement mentions why Advanced Group, the owner and operator of the residential building where the victims lived was included in the lawsuit.

The wrongful death lawsuits are involving compensation and they can be settled outside the court.

We will follow what will happen in this lawsuit too besides the main trial.

Here is the RSS of the Podcast which I hope you follow if you speak Arabic.

Here is the podcast's URL on Spotify and Apple Podcast. It is also available on Stitcher, Google Podcasts and  Anghami.

I want to thank all those amazing listeners who are kind enough to listen to my rants in Arabic and the amazing readers who are kind enough to read those very long posts in English.