Murderer of SLO High grad in Berkeley sent to state hospital after insanity plea
A UC Berkeley student who stabbed a San Luis Obispo High School graduate to death in Alameda County in 2017 will spend the foreseeable future in a state mental facility.
The assignment of 24-year-old Pablo Gomez, Jr. to an indeterminate term of 39 years to life in Napa State Hospital brings some closure for the victim’s father, who was one of several to deliver victims impact statements Friday at the Alameda County Superior Courthouse.
Following the hearing, Gomez was formally transferred to the custody of the Department of State Hospitals after entering pleas of no contest to first-degree murder and attempted murder earlier this year.
Emilie Juliette Inman, 27, was found slain outside of her home Jan. 6, 2017, after Gomez stabbed another woman, who survived the attack, during a psychotic event.
Her father, San Luis Obispo resident Scott Inman, wrote in a letter to family and friends prior to Friday’s hearing that the conclusion to Gomez’s criminal case leaves many questions unanswered about “the strange collection of events” that led Gomez to commit such a “heinous” crime.
Alameda County assistant district attorney Teresa Drenick said Friday that Gomez made the pleas with a stipulation based on the opinions of four doctors that at the time of the crimes that Gomez was not guilty by reason of insanity.
The indeterminate sentence means Gomez could spend less than the minimum 39 years in the state hospital system.
SLO High School grad was local talent
Though Inman was born in France, where she lived with her parents, younger brother and sister, her family moved to San Luis Obispo when she was 8 years old. The three siblings attended Hawthorne Elementary Elementary, Laguna Middle School and San Luis Obispo High School, Scott Inman previously told The Tribune.
Emilie developed a love for singing at an early age, participating in local youth choir and other local art programs. She was also politically active and loved to travel, her father said.
She majored in environmental studies and graduated from UC Santa Cruz.
She spent her professional life working with children, teaching kindergarten to fourth-grade science classes at the Walker Creek Ranch in Petaluma, the Marine Science Institute in Redwood City and the Sienna Ranch in Lafayette, where she began working in 2014 as a fifth- and sixth-grade instructor.
At the time of her death, Inman was nearing the end of third and final year of a part-time teacher training program at the Bay Area Center for Waldorf Teacher Training in El Sobrante to focus on teaching art.
Inman’s partner of eight years previously said her friends were amazed at Emilie Inman’s kindness and ability to console others in need. Both avid musicians, the couple self-produced music together, which they published on the artist-sharing platform SoundCloud.
A senseless murder in Bay Area
According to Berkeleyside, Gomez was a student and activist at UC Berkeley, and did not know Inman.
The newspaper, whose reporters covered testimony of Gomez’s November 2017 preliminary hearing, reported that Emilie Inman’s body was found with multiple stab wounds to the neck and abdomen.
Her body was hidden under a pile of hay in her backyard, Berkeleyside reported. It took hours for police to realize her body was underneath the debris due to the careful nature of which it was hidden, according to the newspaper.
The second stabbing victim, Kiana Schmitt, who was a friend of Gomez’s, testified in 2017 that Gomez was acting strangely and appeared distressed in the 12 or so hours before the killing.
They* — Gomez, who is transgender, identifies with a plural pronoun — were muttering and agitated, and seeing hallucinations in the sky, according to Berkeleyside.
Gomez, who may have smoked an unknown substance, directed Schmitt to drive them to a friend’s house south of campus, but would not name the friend who lived there, the newspaper said.
Schmitt later followed Gomez inside the home, finding them with blood on their sweatshirt and holding a bloody kitchen knife, the Berkeleyside said.
After Gomez convinced their shocked friend to cover up Inman’s body, according to Berkeleyside, Gomez began slashing and stabbing Schmitt, who testified that they said, “It’s your time now.”
After a struggle, the attack stopped, and Gomez took Schmitt, bleeding, from the home, and shortly thereafter ran from Schmitt, who flagged down a passing vehicle, the newspaper said.
According to testimony, Inman and Gomez did not know each other, but a past acquaintance of Gomez’s used to live in Inman’s apartment.
‘Questions unanswered’ for Inman family
In a letter to family and friends sent late last month in preparation for Friday’s hearing, Scott Inman wrote that the loss of Emilie has been “devastating” to the Inman family.
“The profound grief that accompanies a loss of a child, especially considering the conditions in which she died, have made the last three years seemingly unbearable at times,” he wrote. “The numerous trips to the Alameda County Superior Court house have continued to challenge our mental state as well as our deep emotional being.
Inman wrote that medical experts that have evaluated Gomez concluded that Gomez had a violent psychotic break with reality at the time of the murder but remains schizophrenic. Gomez entered into a stipulation with prosecutors that they would be treated at Napa State Hospital after being found guilty for reason of insanity.
“The term itself is horrible as there is no doubt that he is the murderer, but such is the law,” Inman wrote, referring to Gomez.
“We were initially very disappointed that this case would not be presented in front of a 12-person jury, as we felt that there was much truth that needed to come to light, and that there was and is a need for additional understanding by the community at large to understand the type of crime, directed towards women, and the immense fragility of mental health,” Inman continued. “We now know that we will forever have questions unanswered regarding the strange collection of events that led to a man perpetrating such a heinous crime, and our beloved Emilie’s death.”
Scott Inman wrote that continued waves of grief, combined with the drawn out legal process, continue to take a toll on the family, and he looks forward “to the moment when we can no longer talk about this man.”
“We are so tired of justice seeming to be concerned more about the defendant’s rights, and the legal process, rather than the victims and all of those connected to the victims,” he wrote.”
Editor’s note: Gomez’s preferred gender pronoun is ”they.” The LGBTQ+ Resource Center provides more information about personal gender pronouns. All instances of “they” in this story refer only to Gomez.
