Man Indicted On Murder Charges For Oakland Oikos University Shooting Rampage
OAKLAND (CBS SF) -- In a procedural move, a man suspected of killing seven people in a shooting rampage at Oakland's Oikos University in 2012 has been indicted on seven counts of murder and three counts of premeditated attempted murder, prosecutors said Monday.
However, doctors who examined 45-year-old One Goh recently have determined that he is still mentally incompetent to stand trial, according to Alameda County Deputy District Attorney Stacie Pettigrew.
Goh didn't attend his brief hearing on his case this afternoon in Alameda County Superior Court because he's still being treated at Napa State Hospital, where he was sent in January 2013 after a judge ruled that he's not competent to stand trial and suspended the legal proceedings against him.
The Alameda County District Attorney's Office filed charges against Goh, a Korean national, two days after a shooting incident on April 2, 2012, at Oikos, a Christian vocational school, that left seven people dead and three others wounded.
Oakland police said Goh fled the campus after the shooting in a car belonging to one of the victims but was arrested in Alameda a short time later after he confessed to a Safeway security guard that he had just shot several people.
An Alameda County grand jury indicted Goh on Aug. 22, Pettigrew said.
The procedural move means that his case can go directly to trial without a preliminary hearing if he's later found to be competent to stand trial.
However, Goh won't be arraigned on the charges in the indictment until such time as he's found to be mentally competent.
Pettigrew said the charges Goh faces now are identical to those that he faced before except that he now only faces two special circumstance allegations that could possibly result in the death penalty if he stands trial and is convicted. He previously faced 10 special circumstance allegations.
The two remaining special circumstance allegations are committing a murder during a kidnapping and committing multiple murders.
The goal for Goh's treatment at the Napa State Hospital is for him to progress toward recovering his mental competence so he eventually can stand trial.
Goh's attorney, David Klaus, said after his hearing today that Goh still suffers from paranoid schizophrenia and a major depressive disorder.
Klaus said the two concerns that must be addressed before Goh can stand trial is if he understands the proceedings against him and if he can rationally assist his lawyer in his defense.
Killed in the shooting at Oikos were students Lydia Sim, 21, Sonam Choedon, 33, Grace Kim, 23, Doris Chibuko, 40, Judith Seymour, 53, and Tshering Bhutia, 38, as well as Katleen Ping, 24, who worked at the school.
Goh is a former student who had left Oikos University voluntarily. Prosecutors have said he appears to have wanted a refund of his tuition and may have been targeting an administrator who was not present on the day of the shooting.
Goh's next court hearing is scheduled for April 27, 2015 for another progress report on his mental competency.
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