Sex Offender Doctor Gets Life After Assault Victim Dies From Injuries 30 Years After Attack

A convicted sex offender was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of a Texas doctor who was left permanently disabled for 30 years from severe brain injuries received during a sexual assault.

It took the Dallas County jury little more than an hour Monday to convict former doctor George Guo, 58, of capital murder after Katherine Bascone died in 2018 from injuries she sustained in a 1988 attack he perpetrated, The Dallas Morning News reports.

Guo was automatically sentenced to life in prison since prosecutors had opted not to seek the death penalty in the case.

Guo attacked fellow doctor Katherine Bascone in her home on June 19, 1988—strangling her with a hair dryer cord during a sexual assault and cutting off the oxygen supply to her brain.

As a result, Bascone was left blind, paralyzed and with a brain injury that required lifetime care, local station KXAS-TV reports.

George Guo Photo: Dallas County Sheriff's Department

Lead prosecutor Leighton D’Antoni argued during trial that the injuries forced Bascone to live a life of pain, as muscle contractions froze some of her muscles in place and her inability to move on her own resulted in deep bed sores.

“This is what the defendant did to Katherine Bascone,” D’Antoni said in court after showing photos of Bascone according to the local paper. “And that is how she lived: in pain and contracted.”

Investigators had initially been unable to find her attacker—but after she died in February 2018 as a result of the injuries she'd suffered decades earlier, cold case detectives resumed their effort to locate her assailant.

Using DNA samples recovered from the scene, authorities were able to match the samples to Guo, a licensed physician and registered sex offender.

Guo had several prior convictions, including a 1991 burglary after he'd broken into the home of an area college student, bringing with him condoms, a ski mask, tear gas and syringes filled with sedatives, Fox News reports.

He was convicted again in 1999 of burglary with intent to commit a sexual assault after he had once again attempted to break into a women’s apartment. He was sentenced to 14 years in prison in that case.

While prosecutors argued that Guo had committed the violent attack against Bascone in her home in 1988, his defense attorney argued that the state had failed to prove Guo was the attacker.

"We're not disputing that what happened to Katherine Bascone was a horrible tragedy, but the state hasn't proven this man is responsible for it," defense attorney Lynn Cox said, according to The Dallas Morning News. "As much as you might feel sorry for that family and want to give them closure, that's not your job."   

The jury ultimately decided with the prosecution.