Software engineer in Bodega Bay LSD rampage allowed to serve one-year jail term at home

A vacationing software engineer who — while hallucinating on psychedelic drugs — drove a stolen pickup into a family out for a walk in a Bodega Bay neighborhood will be allowed to serve a one-year jail term on home confinement, a Sonoma County judge said Thursday.

The driver, 33-year-old Betai Koffi, remains partially paralyzed from being shot multiple times in the head by a Sonoma County sheriff’s deputy, who was trying to stop Koffi’s erratic and destructive path through the neighborhood July 4, 2019.

Koffi, a former San Francisco resident who has since moved to Southern California, was sentenced Thursday by Sonoma County Superior Court Judge Chris Honigsberg, who remarked at the level of remorse and insight the man had demonstrated in the year-and-a-half since his arrest.

The family of those who were hurt spoke about their ordeal for the first time.

South Bay resident Betty Wan wrote in a letter to the court that it was her wedding weekend, and Koffi had crashed into her brother, cousins and their girlfriends, who had come to the Sonoma Coast for the celebration. One woman, Vivian Chen, was seriously hurt.

“It was my wedding weekend that caused her to be hurt, so why wasn’t I the one being punished?” Wan wrote in a letter read by Deputy District Attorney Matthew Henning. “She missed work, body feels different, and she still has physical consequences.”

Also in her letter, Wan described how their unlikely and tragic encounter in Bodega Bay revealed their shared connections and friends in Silicon Valley. Koffi, a talented pianist before his injuries, had played music at the wedding of a mutual friend, who was also present that weekend in Bodega Bay.

Wan said her entire family knew that Koffi surely suffered the most serious, life-altering injuries from that day. She asked Koffi to apologize but said they had already forgiven him.

“We forgive you and genuinely wish you a full recovery and a fulfilled life,” she wrote.

Koffi used a wheelchair during Thursday’s hearing and wore a brace on his left arm.

Dozens of friends and colleagues wrote letters in support of Koffi to attest to his character. Koffi had no previous criminal record.

Honigsberg said the letters helped influence his decision to allow Koffi to apply for a jail diversion program in order to continue his aggressive rehabilitation.

Also significant was the way in which Koffi expressed a sense of responsibility for putting the deputy in a position that he felt he had to shoot him to stop further violence. Honigsburg said that insight and contrition was something “I certainly have never seen, and may never see again, (from) someone else in your position who sustained the injures you did.”

Koffi’s friends called 911 that holiday weekend seeking help after he began acting out, sheriff’s officials said.

Koffi and several friends had taken small amounts of LSD, and Koffi began acting strange after taking additional doses, at one point threatening to kill himself, according to audio and transcript of the emergency call.

Koffi walked away from the house they had rented for the holiday weekend, and ended up in the driveway of another house. Sheriff’s Officials said Koffi threatened a private security guard with a landscaping light he’d pulled out of the ground and took the man’s pickup.

He drove away in the guard’s pickup, plowing into three people and knocking them off their feet.

A sheriff’s patrol deputy and a CHP officer called to the neighborhood stopped their cars near the idling security pickup, and Koffi began driving slowly and turning the wheel, according to the body camera video. Deputy Jason Pasero fired multiple rounds at him and the vehicle stopped.

Koffi was arrested and arraigned while being treated at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital for brain injuries.

Koffi pleaded no contest in December to four counts of assault with a deadly weapon, two counts of assault on a law enforcement officer and vehicle theft.

Koffi now lives in Southern California where he stays with his mother on the weekends and travels to Long Beach during the week to access physical therapy, said his attorney, Steve Gallenson. Koffi’s doctor wrote to the court describing the rigorous rehabilitation critical in the first three years after a traumatic brain injury that may not be possible in the jail.

Both the prosecution and judge said they wanted Koffi to have the best chance at recovering from his physical injuries.

The charges could have brought a maximum sentence of 14 years and four months in prison. Instead, Koffi will be allowed to apply for home confinement. He was also given a 3-year probation term.

“It was clear to me you were extremely remorseful for what happened and if there was anything you could do to change it and take it back, it’s clear to me you would do that,“ Honigsberg said.

You can reach Staff Writer Julie Johnson at 707-521-5220 or julie.johnson@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @jjpressdem.