Gore Is Found Guilty In Rapes -- Everett Man Convicted Of 4 Charges, Acquitted Of 1

EVERETT - They sat through 20 days of sometimes heart-wrenching testimony, took extensive notes and ultimately picked their way through five criminal cases.

And in the end, jurors in Paul Gore's serial-rape trial - one of the bigger assault trials in the county in recent years - decided there was too much evidence to ignore.

The Snohomish County Superior Court jury of seven men and five women yesterday convicted the 31-year-old Everett man of two rapes and two attempted rapes.

The panel acquitted him of a single charge of attempted rape, but not by much.

"I think the general feeling was everybody knew Paul did it (the dropped charge), but there was no physical evidence - there were no traces," said a 39-year-old female juror from Snohomish, who asked not to be identified.

Gore was on trial for raping two girls and attempting to rape a woman and two other girls. All the attacks took place in Snohomish County from February 1993 to May 1995. Four of the victims were 12 or 13.

Prosecutors, whose case included DNA evidence, called all five victims to testify.

"I'm satisfied," said Mark Roe, one of two deputy prosecutors on the case. "I think the jury did a good job of weighing the evidence."

Roe acknowledged he was disappointed by the one acquittal but said prosecutors had no DNA evidence or information placing Gore near the scene of the attack, which took place Jan. 20, 1995. The assault also varied from the others, he said, because it occurred after 8 p.m. just off a sidewalk, while the others occurred during the day in wooded areas.

Roe said he and Deputy Prosecutor John Crowley will ask for a minimum of a 30-year prison term for Gore and may seek an exceptional sentence beyond that.

Defense attorney George Cody, who during the trial attacked how the DNA testing was conducted and argued that Gore had a strong alibi during one of the assaults, said the court battle may not be over.

"There were issues that certainly would justify appeal," he said.

Karen Klein, Gore's other defense lawyer, said she thinks her client is innocent and that the outcome was "an injustice."

But several jurors said the group considered each charge against Gore as a separate case and painstakingly weighed all the evidence.

"We had some difficult things to work through," said one woman who lives in Mukilteo, works for the county and asked not to be identified. "Everybody there was very conscientious."

Another juror, Douglas Buell, said he was particularly influenced by the fact that some of the victims were able to identify Gore - in the courtroom and by appearance or voice in a January lineup.

Buell said he came to have overwhelming confidence in the police investigation.

"There just weren't any gaps," he said.

Some cases were easier to resolve than others, jurors said. One of the most clear-cut was the first assault, on Feb. 17, 1993, when a 12-year-old girl was raped on her way to school. Gore reported to work just two blocks away about 30 minutes after the attack. And results from DNA testing linked Gore to the assault.

Jurors were not much swayed by an expert witness for the defense, who attacked the way in which the tests were conducted.

"I think there was some smoke screen put up . . . that none of us bought," said the Mukilteo woman.

The courtroom was packed yesterday with those waiting to hear the jury's decision. Detectives lined the back rows. Gore's 26-year-old wife, Christina, and his father, Charles, stood near a wall and held hands. One victim, now 16, sat in the front row with her family.

Dressed in a button-down shirt, sweater and slacks, Gore showed no expression as the verdicts were read. His wife, however, slumped against the wall and wept.

Another member of the audience, a 30-year-old Everett woman, cried tears of relief. Gore stood trial in October 1994 for allegedly attempting to rape her at an Everett park in June 1993. A jury acquitted him.

"I felt pretty validated," she said later.

The 16-year-old girl, who was 12 when she was assaulted in 1993, was smiling and upbeat after the verdicts.

"It's overwhelming," she said.

A sentencing date has not yet been set.