Survivors retell horrors of Sunnyvale ESL mass shooting ...Middle East

SAN JOSE, Calif. (KRON) -- One-by-one, former Electromagnetic Systems Lab employees faced a judge and retold details about how they survived a mass workplace shooting carried out by Richard Farley in Sunnyvale.

Farley, who was obsessed with a co-worker who refused to date him, stormed into an ESL building filled with employees in 1988 and began firing a shotgun. Following a trial in 1991, Farley was sentenced to death for murdering seven victims.

Decades after the massacre, the victims' ESL co-workers said they are still haunted by traumatic memories, survivor's guilt, and PTSD. Survivors delivered victim impact statements Friday at Farley's resentencing hearing with Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Benjamin Williams presiding.

Last year, District Attorney Jeff Rosen filed a petition asking the court to lower the convicted murderer's sentence from death to life in prison without parole.

Dozens of survivors told Judge Williams that Farley was sentenced to death by a jury to ensure justice for victims. Anything less than a death sentence would deny that justice, survivors said. Farley did not attend his own resentencing hearing.

Laura Black, a young electrical engineer, repeatedly refused Farley's romantic advances while they worked together at ESL in the 1980s. He stalked her at work and at home. Black filed for a restraining order and Farley was fired from the company.

On February 16, 1988, Farley stormed inside building M5 inside looking for Black.

He blasted his way toward Black's office and shot 11 people with a shotgun. Black was shot in the shoulder and survived. Seven ESL employees were killed, including 26-year-old Ron Reed, 23-year-old Wayne "Buddy" Williams, and 27-year-old Glenda Moritz.

In court on Friday, a man who shared his office with Reed on the second floor of M5 urged the judge to deny the DA's request for reducing Farley's sentence. On the day of the mass shooting, the man was working on the second floor when he saw Moritz fall to the floor with a gunshot wound. The man crawled into a conference room, locked the door, and saw Moritz's blood seeping under the doorway. He hid inside the locked office during an hours-long standoff between Farley and a SWAT team. "District Attorney Rosen ... should care more about crime victims than mass murderers. What is the point of reducing his sentence?" he said.

Another survivor described Reed as "bright and curious," and Moritz as "an incredibly vivacious young woman."

Williams' close friend, Scott Gamel, reminded the judge that Farley's crime led California to establish anti-stalking laws in the 1990s. Farley's mass shooting "was not about race. It was about a man who tormented a woman and committed premediated murder against her co-workers," Gamel said.

California currently has a moratorium on executing inmates. Gamel said, even without executions, death penalty sentences serve as an important deterrent for would-be future killers. "Softening or eliminating deterrents makes the community less safe," he said. "Honor my friend's memory, keep the justice we were promised."

Glen Fortin, who was a member of the SWAT team that responded to the mass shooting scene, also showed up at Friday's hearing. When the SWAT team entered M5, Farley was barricaded on an upper floor.

Fortin told the judge, "It was a bloody scene. Found the first victim laying on the floor, shotgun wound to the head. (A second victim was) shot in the chest ... he was deceased also. I moved up to the second floor hallway, I could see a body ... he was obviously deceased. A woman was laying in her office ... she was deceased. There was a body propped up against a door, a man with a shotgun wound to his back."

The standoff ended when a hostage negotiator convinced Farley to surrender in exchange for a sandwich and soda. After Farley was taken into custody, Fortin was assigned to keep the crime scene secure with the bodies still inside.

Every victim was wearing their work ID tag, which included their employee photograph. Fortin stared at each photo still attached to lifeless bodies. "I wanted to see what they looked like in life. It resonated with me. That's what they looked like before today," Fortin said he thought at the time.

"I had an opportunity to think. These people got up that morning, took a shower, had a cup of coffee, and went to work. They never got to come home. He took out his revenge on these people," Fortin told the judge.

The SWAT team member said he attended Friday's hearing because, "I want to make sure justice is upheld. This guy got the death penalty. That's what he deserves."

Fred Nikolac, a former director of engineering at ESL, told the judge that he was one of the lucky ones. His administrative assistant interrupted his meeting by banging on the door and warning, "There's a guy in here with a gun. Get out now."

Nikolac was part of a group of employees who toured M5 after the bodies were removed. "I had to walk down the hall and leap over a pool of blood because it was too wide to step over. That (blood) came from friends of mine. Our District Attorney, if he had to go through that, would he be pressing to reduce his sentence?"

Nikolac told the judge that Farley deserves his death sentence. "He's had 37 years since that event, 37 years that none of his victims had," he told the judge.

After listening to hours of victim impact statements, Judge Williams ruled against the DA's petition for reducing Farley's sentence. Farley will remain as a condemned inmate, and his sentence will not be reduced, the judge ruled.

District Attorney Rosen successfully petitioned for 11 other death penalty cases to be lowered to life in prison without parole within the past year.

A former Santa Clara County district attorney and judge, Dolores Carr, described the Farley case as the worst of the worst. "This one, in terms of number of victims, was clearly the worst," Carr told KRON4. Carr worked closely with attorney James McManis and detectives to track down and notify victims' family members about Rosen's effort to reduce the killer's sentence. Carr said many were not notified by the DA that a resentencing hearing was scheduled.

"The DA made minimal effort to locate victims, even though they are obligated to do that under Marsy's Law," Carr said.

Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Survivors retell horrors of Sunnyvale ESL mass shooting )

Also on site :

• Exactly How Many Times a Week To Walk To Improve Your Heart Health, According to Cardiologists
• DWTS Pros Support Beloved Mirrorball Winner, 38, Amid Personal News
• Nike Is Selling the 'Most Comfortable' $115 Sneakers for Just $64, and Shoppers Say They Feel Like 'Walking On Clouds'