The State : Jury Urges Death Penalty

Convicted mass murderer David (Moochie) Welch should be sentenced to death for the predawn shooting rampage that left six people dead in Oakland’s biggest mass murder, an Alameda County Superior Court jury recommended. Welch, 31, showed no emotion when the jury read the recommendation after deliberating four hours over two days. The same jury on June 19 convicted Welch of six counts of murder stemming from the bloody Dec. 6, 1986, shooting that left his former girlfriend and five others dead. Two of the dead were children, ages 2 and 4. Welch had a long-running feud with the woman’s family. “I’m relieved for the victims’ families and for my own that this ordeal has finally come to a rest,” Welch told Superior Court Judge Stanley Golde after the jury was dismissed. Golde set a July 26 sentencing date.