Trial begins for man accused in brutal 1988 Highland Park attack

The trial began Monday for a man accused of attacking a woman in Highland Park in 1988 who died last year from injuries she suffered in the assault.

DALLAS - The trial began Monday for a man accused of attacking a woman in Highland Park in 1988 who died last year from injuries she suffered in the assault.

George Guo faces a capital murder charge. Prosecutors say Katherine Bascone was left severely injured and permanently disabled after the attack. The medical examiner ruled her death last year a homicide.

Bascone's mother, Rebecca Bascone, described to the court on Monday how her daughter was never the same after June 18, 1988. She said her daughter went from being a naturally smart and gifted doctor, happy to soon start her residency at Tulane, to being blind and unable to stand, talk or even lift her head.

Highland Park police said a man entered her apartment on Abbott Avenue and said that he raped her and choked her. The case went cold for 30 years.

It wasn't until she passed away in 2018, and the medical examiner ruled her death a homicide due to her injuries, that the Dallas County District Attorney's cold case team resubmitted DNA from the crime and got a match for George Guo. He was a registered sex offender from a previous conviction.

In 1988, Guo would have been 27 at the time of the crime and also a doctor.

Bascone’s mother said she had never heard his name before he was arrested in Houston in June 2018 for capital murder.

Guo's DNA was entered in a criminal data base from previous cases. His arrest affidavit states that in 1990, two years after Bascone was attacked, Highland Park police took a 911 call from a SMU student and police interrupted the attack, finding Guo "dressed in all black...tying her up and beginning to sexually assault the student." He was sentenced to probation.

The affidavit also states, he was caught during another attempted attack in Houston in 2001, in which he wore the same "all black clothing, entering the premises during early morning hours and stalking the victim prior to committing his offense."

Guo pleaded guilty to burglary of a habitation with intent to commit sexual assault, was released from prison in 2013 and registered as a sex offender.

Guo has been in the Dallas County Jail on $5 million bond since his arrest for capital murder.