Dr Carl Wigren, who conducted an autopsy on the victim's body four days after the alleged murder, was called as a witness this afternoon.
The trial for the 28-year-old man accused of inflicting the wounds that killed the mother of three began this week.
The Crown says on the evening of May 24 last year the defendant deliberately ran her down in his car as she walked home from work.
It is alleged he then bundled her into his silver BMW and took her back to his nearby apartment complex where he raped her, slit her throat and stabbed her to death.
Before the pathologist gave his evidence, Justice Timothy Brewer warned the jury that they would be shown photos that would be difficult to stomach.
"You're not going to find them pleasant to look at ... I just give you that warning," he said.
Dr Wigren detailed a plethora of Mrs Gotingco's injuries for the jury which included a stab wound in her neck within which they found pieces of her necklace.
He highlighted one "very severe" wound -- 14.5cm long and 2cm deep -- which partially cut through her windpipe and exposed her jaw bone.
When her lungs were dissected, Dr Wigren found a "mottled, reddish colour".
"What this tells me is blood has been inhaled into the deepest parts of the lung ... she was alive and she was breathing [when the wound was inflicted]," he said.
A T-shirt found around Mrs Gotingco's neck was thought to have originally been white in colour but had turned red because of the bloodshed.
Mrs Gotingco was stabbed several times too.
One such wound was 15cm deep and had been so forceful her rib had been completely cut and her lung punctured.
Further details of the victim's injuries are expected to be covered this afternoon.
The trial, before Justice Brewer and a jury of seven women and five men, is scheduled to last another two weeks.
- Rob Kidd, NZME. News Service court reporter
