7 life terms for killer at Oakland university
Emotions flow at sentencing in 2012 Oikos massacre
The 48-year-old dropout nursing student who committed a mass shooting at Oikos University in Oakland in 2012 was sentenced Friday to seven life terms in prison — one for every victim he killed.
One Goh appeared in Alameda County Superior Court in Oakland, where loved ones of the victims he killed or wounded vented their anger and grief.
“These past years have been really hard. My mother was a beautiful, caring, hardworking person,” said Camella Seymour, whose mother, Judith, was one of the seven people Goh shot to death in April 2012.
Seymour, 34, of Sacramento, broke down in tears while addressing the court, pausing for a long period before she could speak. She said her 53year-old mother, a San Jose resident, had enrolled in the nursing program at the university in hopes of making a better life for herself.
“I can’t sit in a classroom without thinking something is going to happen to me,” Seymour said. “I’m trying to be strong ... but it’s hard.”
Michael Howey spoke on behalf of his longtime girlfriend, Grace Kirika, who was wounded in the mass shooting
and did not attend Friday’s sentencing. Howey spoke directly to Goh, who wouldn’t look at him.
“One Goh, you are nothing but a coward,” Howey told the killer. “You should have decided to use the gun on yourself. You deserve everything coming to you. I hope you rot in prison.”
The parents and brother of Katleen Ping, an Oikos University receptionist killed in the rampage, sat in the court gallery, periodically dabbing their eyes with tissues as they listened to the family members. The 24-year-old Ping of Oakland was killed even though Goh had promised not to hurt her if she stayed silent.
Kaine Ping, her brother, stood before the judge, sobbing uncontrollably as Alameda County Deputy District Attorney Stacie Pettigrew placed a hand on his back while wiping away her own tears.
“The pain and the suffering and the grief will never end. She left behind a son who’s now 9 years old,” said Kaine Ping, his voice barely audible as he looked back at his parents.
On May 2, Goh pleaded no contest to seven felony murder charges and three felony attempted murder charges in exchange for prosecutors not seeking the death penalty.
Judge Jeffrey Horner sentenced him to seven life terms, or 271 years, without the possibility of parole.
Goh expressed remorse for the murder spree in a letter read in court by his defense attorney, David Klaus.
“He is very, very sorry, and he’ll carry this shame forever,” Klaus said.
Klaus added that Goh hopes his sentence will “offer closure” to the victims’ families and those who survived the massacre.
In addition to Seymour and Ping, the murder victims were Lydia Sim, 21, of Hayward; Sonam Choedon, 33, of El Cerrito; Grace Eunhae Kim, 23, of Union City; Doris Chibuko, 40, of San Leandro; and Tshering Rinzing Bhutia, 38, of San Francisco.
Following the sentencing, Goh, whose wrists were locked to a chain wrapped around his waist, was placed into the custody of Alameda County sheriff ’s deputies and was to be transferred immediately to the state prison system.
Since the shooting, Goh has been held at the Napa State Hospital, a locked psychiatric facility, where he was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia.
Shortly after his arrest in 2012, court-appointed doctors deemed him mentally unfit to stand trial. But that changed in May when doctors determined his mental capacity was restored.
On April 2, 2012, Goh walked onto the Oikos University campus with a .45 caliber handgun and took Ping hostage before fatally shooting her and six students, and wounding three others, authorities said.
Goh then took one of the victims’ cars and fled to a Safeway store in Alameda, where police were called after he surrendered to an employee, authorities said.
Investigators said Goh had gone to Oikos University to murder a university administrator when he was unable to get his tuition refunded after dropping out. Unbeknownst to Goh, the administrator had left her job after Goh had left the school’s nursing program.
Oikos University is a small, private Christian school near Oakland International Airport that has a vocationalnursing program and offers courses in music, Bible studies and Asian medicine.