The emerging details of 13-year-old Milana Li’s slaying are tragic and brutal. Friends and family described the girl as a doting older sister, budding guitarist and aspiring preschool teacher when she was found strangled to death and hidden underwater last May, with evidence she was sexually abused.
A year after investigators found Li’s body, a Washington County Circuit judge must decide where the sixth-grader’s suspected killer, Daniel Ryan Gore, now 17, should be tried for her rape and murder. Closing arguments in the hearing to decide whether Gore’s case will be tried in adult or juvenile court are expected Tuesday, following a week of testimony.
Previously, people ages 15 to 17 accused of Measure 11 crimes including murder, rape or robbery were automatically tried in adult court. But now, as a result of Oregon’s 2019 juvenile justice reforms, prosecutors must request a hearing for a judge to decide whether to move a juvenile’s case into adult court.
The law is meant to keep teens accused of serious crimes out of adult court and in the juvenile judicial system, where sentences are shorter and the primary goal is rehabilitation.
“Part of the question is, are you ready to give up on somebody if they’re just 17 or even younger?” said Tung Yin, a professor at Lewis & Clark Law School.
If convicted in adult court, Gore could face a 30-year prison sentence, with eligibility for parole after 15 years. If convicted as a juvenile, he would be in the custody of the Oregon Youth Authority custody for less than eight years until the age of 25.
Since Oregon enacted the reforms almost four years ago, 1,117 Oregon juveniles have been charged with Measure 11 crimes. Prosecutors requested adult trials in 63 of those cases, and judges granted the change in seven instances, according to judicial department data from September 2019 through June 2023.
Last week, Li’s family pleaded with Washington County Circuit Judge Erik Buchér, who is presiding over the hearing, to move Gore’s trial to adult court, citing the heinous nature of Li’s death and their perception that Gore posed a danger to the public. He was 16 at the time of Li’s killing.
“The thought of Milana’s last moments is enough to drive us to madness,” said Li’s mother, Assel Li, in a victim impact statement read by a state prosecutor in court Thursday. “The thought of Daniel Gore being released in a few years fills me with fear for the safety of my family and society at large.”
Based on Oregon Judicial Department data, the chances Gore’s case will be moved into adult court are slim.
Adam Coffey, a forensic evaluator and physiologist who testified Tuesday in Washington County Circuit Court, said that judges must weigh two key factors.
First, judges must determine whether the juvenile had “sufficient maturity and sophistication” at the time of the alleged crime to have an “adult-like” understanding of their conduct. Second, he said, the judge must consider which jurisdiction – juvenile or adult – would best serve the young person and society. That includes considering the youth’s openness to rehabilitation and treatment and the danger they might present to the public, depending on the length of their sentence.
Judges also consider the violent or premeditated nature of the alleged offense, the gravity of the loss or damage caused by the offense and the youth’s previous physical, emotional and mental health, according to the statute.
Weighing these factors helps keep juveniles – whose brains are still developing and who are known to act impulsively at times – out of lengthy sentences and harsh facilities where they might have less of a chance of rehabilitation, said Yin, the Lewis & Clark law professor.
“If you’re talking about a 15, 16, 17-year-old person, they are still a child, and if you’re going to waive them into adult court, the adult sentences can be pretty long and they would be remanded to a correctional facility that would be much tougher,” Yin said.
Oregon circuit judges have previously decided to keep cases of teens accused of murder in juvenile court.
In March 2020, a Lane County Circuit judge ruled that Jonathan Daniel Kirkpatrick, who admitted to bludgeoning a sleeping homeless man to death, would be tried as a juvenile because he lacked the sophistication and maturity to grasp the gravity of the crime when he was 16.
The following month, a Yamhill County Circuit judge said he had no choice but to order a juvenile court trial for Andrew Vineyard, who was 15 when he slit his father’s girlfriend’s throat, beat her to death with a baseball bat and sexually abused her body, then shot another person in the house twice.
The judges ordered both juveniles into the custody of the Oregon Youth Authority, where they wouldn’t be held past their 25th birthdays.
“This is not a sentence frankly that any of us likes,” Yamhill County Circuit Judge John Collins said about the Vineyard case at the time. “It is the one that I believe and had to conclude was required under the law.”
Since June 12, state prosecutors and Gore’s defense attorneys have questioned witnesses about their investigation into Gore as a suspect in Li’s murder, his lifestyle prior to being arrested and his cognitive and emotional state around the time Li was killed.
Washington County Sheriff’s Office and Beaverton police investigators said Gore was the last person to be seen with Li, who was found submerged underwater in a shallow creek off a wooded trail two days after she went missing from her family’s home in southwest Beaverton on May 8, 2022.
Her scratched and bruised body had been covered by a blanket weighed down with narrow logs, and some of her clothes were found scattered nearby. Investigators also found evidence she was sexually abused.
When detectives arrested Gore and asked him why he had scratches on his face, Gore told them he had fallen on cement, investigators said.
Gore allegedly had been living for about two months in a tent not far from where Li’s body was found. He communicated with friends through social media, charging his cell phone in local businesses and shoplifting and selling cigarettes to support himself, police said. He had a fascination with violent imagery, with recent Google searches including “girl slit throat” and “sleeping Japanese teen rape,” investigators said.
Holly Crossen, a licensed psychologist with a specialization in forensic psychology, said Thursday that she met with Gore several times after he was arrested. According to her evaluations, Gore’s memory was in the “low average” range, and that he had “some executive functioning issues going on.” In custody, Gore started receiving treatment for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, major depressive disorder, panic disorder and marijuana and alcohol use disorder, Crossen said.
Crossen said her evaluations revealed Gore was “lagging behind for a couple of years in his cognitive development,” primarily due to his previously untreated ADHD, and that his “cognitive age” was closer to 13 years old, compared with other people his age.
Prosecutors and Gore’s attorneys are expected to deliver their closing arguments Tuesday, and Judge Buchér said he would deliver his written opinion likely within three weeks.
