A former U.S. rocket scientist who tried to kill a Saanich couple has lost his appeal of a conviction on two counts of attempted murder.
David Ross Goldberg, a California resident, became obsessed with Tatcha Aroonjaratsang, a Thai woman, after she broke off an engagement with him during which he had sent to her family the equivalent of $15,000 US.
She promised to try to return the money but Goldberg became determined to get it back.
Goldberg, who was 40 at the time of sentencing, was given a nine-and-a-half year term in 2012 for attempted murder. B.C. Supreme Court Justice Geoffrey Gaul gave him two-for-one credit for the three years he had already spent in custody and he was eventually released just over a year ago.
“He has served his term of imprisonment, was immediately deported and is on a probation order including conditions prohibiting return to Canada,” defence lawyer Robert Mulligan said Tuesday.
The probation order is for three years.
Mulligan said Goldberg is in the United States, and that the end of the probation order will not necessarily mean Goldberg can return to Canada.
“The fact that there’s been a conviction and that there’s been an order of that kind at some time in the past is, of course, going to be noted by border officials if someone is seeking to re-enter the country.”
Mulligan said the appeal was filed prior to Goldberg’s departure from Canada. “There were important questions of law involved in this case,” Mulligan said. He said the law pertaining to attempted murder is “somewhat complicated.”
The case began when Goldberg — who met Aroonjaratsang online — travelled to Victoria in 2008 with two guns, ammunition, remote-control wireless receivers and materials related to explosive devices. Aroonjaratsang and Jeremy Walsh, a Canadian she had married, lived in the city.
Goldberg confronted them as they carried groceries in a quiet Saanich neighbourhood. They were on Shorncliffe Road and making their way home to Merriman Drive.
Goldberg demanded his money back. When Aroonjaratsang said she didn’t have it, he pointed a loaded, laser-sighted gun and told the couple that they were going to die.
Walsh jumped Goldberg and a struggled followed, in which two or three shots were fired. Goldberg was stabbed six times during the September 2008 struggle.
On appeal, Mulligan argued that it cannot be said Goldberg tried to kill the couple when he initially pointed the firearm, given that he was still trying to recover the money.
But in a ruling released Tuesday, the B.C. Court of Appeal rejected that argument and upheld the convictions.
In her reasons for the judgment, Justice Mary Newbury said the primary response to Goldberg’s appeal argument is that it was not tenable, given the trial judge’s finding that he did intend to kill when he pointed the firearm at the couple.
“On this basis alone, the appeal must be dismissed.” Appeal Court Justices Peter Lowry and Peter Willcock agreed with Newbury.
— with files from Jeff Bell, Times Colonist
