By Bay City News
A judge on Monday ruled that the man accused of murdering seven people in a shooting rampage at Oakland's Oikos University in April 2012 is incompetent to stand trial and suspended legal proceedings against him.
Alameda County Superior Court Judge Carrie Panetta said she based her ruling on reports by two psychiatrists who have examined 44-year-old One Goh.
Panetta ordered Goh, a Korean national who lived in Oakland, back to court on Jan. 28 for a hearing on which state mental hospital he should be sent to.
Goh is being held without bail at the Alameda County Jail in Dublin on seven counts of murder, three counts of attempted murder for allegedly shooting three victims who survived and 10 special-circumstance allegations, including committing murder during a carjacking.
Police said that Goh fled the campus after the April 2 shootings in a car belonging to one of the victims.
He was arrested in Alameda a short time later after he confessed to a Safeway security guard that he had just shot several people, according to police. Goh is a former student who had left the school 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 the day of the shooting.
According to a probable cause statement filed in court by Oakland police Officer Robert Trevino, Goh has admitted that he carried out the shootings.
Those killed were students Lydia Sim, 21, Sonam Choedon, 33, Grace Kim, 23, Doris Chibuko, 40, Judith Seymour, 53, and Tshering Bhutia, 38, and Katleen Ping, 24, who worked at the school.
In addition to the murder and attempted murder charges, Goh faces 10 special-circumstance allegations that could result in the death penalty if he's convicted.
Seven of those allegations are for committing multiple murders and one each are for committing a murder during a robbery, murder during a carjacking and murder during a kidnapping.
Goh's lawyer, David Klaus, said outside court that the two psychiatrists who have examined Goh concluded that he suffers from paranoid schizophrenia and is unable to cooperate with his defense team because he doesn't understand the criminal justice system.
Klaus said his personal opinion is that Goh "is significantly mentally ill and needs help." He said Goh "is deeply troubled and shows remorse" about his actions.
Some family members of the victims in the case have said they think Goh had to be mentally competent in order to plan and carry out the shooting and have alleged that he is taking advantage of the legal system.
But Klaus said Goh "is not avoiding responsibility" and still faces the prospect of standing trial if he's eventually ruled to be mentally competent after receiving medication and therapy.
"He has confessed to the shooting and accepted responsibility," Klaus said. However, the defense lawyer said Goh is simply not mentally competent to stand trial at this time.
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Virtually all murderers in mass shootings were PREVIOUSLY diagnosed with mental illness and/or on prescription medication to manage psychological issues. We have >300M guns in America and have a handful of mentally deranged people who commit mass killings. Here's thought: perhaps focus on keeping the 0.01% of potentially disturbed people (only 0.01% of THOSE will actually kill) away from all weapons instead of taking 300M guns away from the 99.999% of law abiding citizens. Let's impose 100% instant background checks (eliminate the Gun Show loophole (as has been done already in CA)) and link that database with medical records. If you, perhaps within the last 10 years, have been on meds for mental issues (or actually diagnosed with a condition associated with violent potential), maybe we just take a closer look at you before letting you buy a gun. I understand that the vast vats vast majority of people with minor mental illness are not dangerous-- but it seems a reasonable place to initially focus our efforts.