Man Accused In Oakland Oikos University Massacre Wants To Testify
OAKLAND (CBS SF) -- A forensic psychologist testified Thursday that the man accused of killing seven people and injuring three others in a shooting rampage at an Oakland university in 2012 wants to tell his version of what happened that day.
Testifying at a hearing that will determine if One Goh, 47, is mentally competent to stand trial for the shooting at Oikos University on April 2, 2012, Todd Schirmer said he believes Goh has a personality style as well as "an arrogance and neurosis that won't rest until he tells the story the way he wants it to be told."
Schirmer said Goh has told him that some people think he carried out the shooting because he was ostracized by other students at Oikos, but Goh said, "I don't blame the students, I blame the faculty."
Goh, a Korean national, is charged with seven counts of murder, three counts of premeditated attempted murder and the special circumstance allegations of committing a murder during a kidnapping and committing multiple murders for the shooting at Oikos, a Christian vocational school at 7850 Edgewater Drive near Oakland International Airport.
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.
Criminal proceedings against Goh were suspended on Oct. 1, 2012, after his lawyers questioned his mental competency to stand trial. On Jan. 7, 2013, a judge ruled that he was incompetent to stand trial, citing reports by two psychiatrists who examined him.
He has been treated at Napa State Hospital for more than two and a half years and most doctors who've examined him have continued to say that he is incapable of understanding the proceedings against him and assisting in his defense.
But a report in July by Schirmer, a Napa State Hospital forensic psychologist, found Goh competent to stand trial so a judge recently ordered that Goh face a hearing on his competency.
Prosecutors and defense attorneys agreed at the beginning of Goh's competency hearing last week that Goh wants the death penalty, but they disagreed about whether he reasonably feels guilty for his crime and simply wants his punishment or if he suffers from persistent delusions that prevent him from understanding the criminal proceedings against him.
If Alameda County Superior Court Judge Gloria Rhynes, who is presiding over the hearing, finds Goh to be competent, he will stand trial on the charges against him and could face the death penalty.
But if she finds him to be mentally incompetent, he will be permanently placed at a psychiatric treatment facility such as Napa State Hospital.
Goh's hearing is expected to conclude next Tuesday or Wednesday.
Goh's lawyers say that Schirmer is the only psychologist who has concluded that Goh is mentally competent to stand trial and they are asking him Thursday what caused him to change his previous opinion that Goh wasn't competent.
