One Goh, the man who pleaded no contest in 2017 to charges stemming from a 2012 shooting at Oikos University that left seven people dead, has died in custody. His cause of death is not yet known.
As ABC 7 reports, Goh was in custody at California State Prison-Sacramento, and he died on March 20. He was 50 years old.
Goh was serving seven consecutive life sentences for the murders of 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 the University, had been upset with school administrators after he had dropped out of the school and was refused a full refund of his tuition. One administrator, Wonja Kim of Danville, was Goh's reported target, though unbenknownst to him she no longer worked there when he arrived on April 2, 2012.
Goh went years before standing trial because mental health experts failed to certify that he was mentally fit to stand trial. That finally happened five years after the shooting, in April 2017, and he ended up pleading no contest before the trial began in order to avoid the death penalty, according to his lawyer. Previously we knew, via earlier court proceedings in 2015, that he had openly been hoping for the death penalty because he said he wanted to hasten his own death.
Goh was diagnosed with schizophrenia, and in a police interview in the hours after the shooting, he talked of being a "laughing stock" at the Korean-American university, and said that everyone there viewed him as "some kind of pervert who thinks about sex all the time."
Timothy Brown, the partner of shooting victim Judith Seymour, tells the Chronicle he felt some "relief" hearing of Goh's death, just before the seventh anniversary of the shooting. But, Brown says, "You don’t really have closure; you’re just able to cope with it better."
Oikos University still operates out of an office park near the Oakland Airport. The school offers classes and degree programs in theology, nursing, English, business, and music.
Previously: One Goh, Shooter In 2012 Oikos University Massacre, Pleads No Contest