People v. Goree CA2/3

BACKGROUND

1. The crime. When defendant Goree was 17 years old he committed an extremely brutal rape and murder. The victim was Dr. Josephine Tan. Dr. Tan emigrated from the Philippines in the late 1980’s. She had practiced there as a pediatrician and was preparing to take a qualifying examination so she could practice in California. Tan was in her forties, weighed 97 pounds and was five feet tall. In November 1993, Goree attacked Tan as she was crossing a pedestrian footbridge over the 110 freeway in Torrance. Goree weighed about 165 pounds and stood six feet, three inches tall. Tan’s naked body was discovered supine, her arms and legs stretched apart. She had sustained two skull fractures, which rendered her unconscious. Parallel markings indicated she had then been dragged from the footbridge to a concrete drainage ditch adjacent to the freeway. Injuries to the soles of her bare feet indicated she had tried to flee from her attacker. She had sustained severe facial injuries consistent with a beating, and a shoe print on her right thigh indicated she had been held down during the beating. Tan had likely been raped more than once because her vaginal cavity was cut and contained…