(Image source from: YouTube)

The suspected Maryland newsroom shooter accused of shooting five people to death earlier this month pleaded not guilty on Monday.

On behalf of 38-year-old Jarrod Ramos, the plea was entered by his attorneys in a filing with the Anne Arundel County circuit court, along with motions seeking a rapid jury trial and to obtain prosecution evidence through pretrial discovery.

According to a spokeswoman for prosecutors, Emily Morse, the filing negated the need for Ramos to appear in person for arraignment, as scheduled, and he was not in court. He remains jailed without bond. The proceeding was later removed from the docket.

Ramos was indicted on 23 counts - including murder, attempted murder, and assault - in the June 28 shooting at the Capital Gazette office in Annapolis. Five were killed as Ramos blasted through the newsroom with a shotgun.

The attack, which police said was motivated by a long-standing grudge he held against the newspaper in Maryland's state capital.

The community newspaper is owned by the Baltimore Sun. The killings rank as one of the deadliest attacks on journalists in the United States history.

Ramos defense elevated various procedural objections, including an assertion that identification of the defendant at trial would "be tainted as a result of impermissibly suggestive identification procedures undertaken by police".

Morse said a formal identification of Ramos was established through facial recognition technology. She denied as inaccurate reports that the suspect had mutilated his fingertips to avoid identification. She characterized the defense objections as "pretty standard" in such cases.

By Sowmya Sangam