The former nursing student accused of murdering seven people in a massacre at a small Oakland college in 2012 has been indicted by an Alameda County grand jury, but his trial remains on hold while he receives psychiatric treatment, prosecutors said Monday.
One Goh, 45, was named in an indictment issued Aug. 26 that charges him with seven counts of murder, three counts of attempted murder, weapons enhancements and two special circumstances: committing multiple murders and murdering in the course of a kidnapping.
The indictment, which prosecutors revealed during a brief court hearing Monday, replaces a criminal complaint issued by prosecutors and allows them to take the mass shooting at Oikos University to a trial.
It's unclear, however, if and when a jury may see the case. Goh was not present at Monday's hearing, having been deemed mentally unfit to stand trial because of paranoid schizophrenia and sent for treatment to Napa State Hospital, a locked psychiatric center.
Goh's attorney, Assistant Public Defender Dave Klaus, said Monday that his client's condition was "the same or perhaps worse than it was when he was committed" to Napa State in early 2013.
"Though he is taking his medication, he continues to isolate in his cell and is making little progress," Klaus said. "He continues to feel great remorse and shame for his violent acts."
Investigators say Goh confessed to carrying out the April 2, 2012, rampage at Oikos, for reasons that remain unclear.
University employees have said Goh was angry that he could not get his tuition refunded after he dropped out in November 2011. Klaus has said Goh heard voices and experienced delusions about "the battle between God and Satan and his role in that battle."
Oikos, on Edgewater Drive near Oakland International Airport, caters to recent immigrants seeking vocational licenses. The university is facing several wrongful-death lawsuits filed by families of the victims.
Henry K. Lee is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: [email protected] Twitter: @henryklee
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