There's a minor update in the still-yet-to-be-tried case of accused multiple murderer One Goh, the sole suspect in the killing of seven people at Oakland's Oikos University in 2012. Goh, 45, was indicted by a grand jury last month, as was revealed in court Monday, on seven counts of murder and two special circumstance allegations in a procedural move that may impact the process of his eventual trial, if and when he ever has one. Since 2012, when Goh's trial was suspend due to his lack of mental competency, Goh has been in treatment at Napa State Hospital with the goal of his ultimately being found fit to stand trial.
Goh suffers from paranoid schizophrenia and "a major depressive disorder" according to his attorney, David Klaus. He was not present for the hearing on Monday.
This procedural move, as CBS 5 reports, allows the case to go directly to trial without a pretrial hearing if and when Goh is found mentally competent. Goh has yet to be arraigned on these charges, and Klaus says they are waiting on an evaluation from doctors that suggests that his client will be able to "rationally assist his lawyer in his defense."
The charges Goh now faces are essentially the same as before, with a couple of small differences.
He previously faced 10 special circumstance allegations.The two remaining special circumstance allegations are committing a murder during a kidnapping and committing multiple murders.
Goh stand accused in the mass murder of seven people on April 2, 2012: Tshering Rinzing Bhutia, 38, of San Francisco; Katleen Ping, 24, of Oakland; Judith Seymour, 53, of San Jose; Lydia Sim, 21, of Hayward; Sonam Choedon, 33, of El Cerrito; Grace Eunhea Kim, 23, of Union City; and Doris Chibuko, 40, of San Leandro. Goh, a former student at Oikos, had shown up at the school armed with a .45 caliber handgun allegedly in order to avenge what he believed was unfair treatment regarding a tuition refund that he had earlier been denied. Goh had left the school voluntarily about eight months before the shooting and got into a dispute with school administrators over a refund.
We have not heard anything about Goh's case, or his condition, since early last year when the New York Times wrote a piece about the Oikos shooting and how it might relate to the idea of "Korean rage." That came two months after Goh was officially deemed mentally unfit by an Alameda County judge.
The next hearing in the case won't be until April 27, 2015, at which point we may learn more about Goh's progress.
