A Portland woman who planned out how to steal cash from her neighbor was sentenced to 10 years in state prison after her friend allegedly beat and killed the elderly man.
Amanda M. Marin pleaded guilty last week to first-degree manslaughter, robbery and burglary for her role in the scheme that left Eugene C. Gora dead in a pool of blood inside his home on May 10, 2018.
Marin, now 41, was living at the McCoy Village affordable housing complex on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard when she befriended Gora, whom she later described to investigators as a “lonely old man” living in a nearby house, court records show.
The mother of 10 began offering rides to Gora, who often spoke of his distrust of banks and once produced $5,000 from a couch cushion, according to the records.
A friend then suggested that he and Marin “hit a lick” on Gora, according to a memo written by Marin’s defense attorney.
The two plotted how Marin could lure her neighbor into a back room and unlock a side door so the accomplice could enter unobserved, the memo alleges.
The accomplice is identified in the memo, but he hasn’t been arrested or charged with a crime. He was seen buying several cars on May 10, according to the defense memo.
Gora’s body was discovered by a caregiver later that day, police said, with the cause of death determined to be blunt force trauma.
Marin was arrested on March 4, 2019, on unrelated identity theft charges in Clackamas County and later told detectives the alleged accomplice gave her $500 as her cut from the robbery.
Multnomah County Circuit Judge Christopher Marshall handed down the 10-year sentence, with credit for time served.
— Zane Sparling; zsparling@oregonian.com; 503-319-7083; @pdxzane
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