"The reason she was there was to be raped and the reason he slit her throat was to kill her,'' prosecutor Kieran Raftery said.
A 28-year-old man facing two charges has spent the last four weeks on the trial in the High Court at Auckland.
After several delays, the Crown is now closing its case for the jury.
"Concentrate on what happened in the garage because it's there that the rape occurred and it's there that the murder occurred,'' Mr Raftery said.
"What happened before and after is, technically speaking, irrelevant; but it's very relevant to the narrative we are talking about.''
The defendant told the court, when he gave evidence earlier this week, that he had spent some time by Eskdale Cemetery on the evening of May 24 last year before he hit Mrs Gotingco in his silver BMW.
"It wasn't just a place to smoke the last of his methamphetamine,'' the Crown said.
"Was it a pure coincidence he went there the following morning to dump the body of Mrs Gotingco?``
Mr Raftery also drew the jury's mind back to the evidence of a young neighbour of the defendant, who said she had heard a scream on the night of the alleged murder.
"If she heard a scream, the man trying to bundle her into his car would certainly have heard. That scream was either Mrs Gotingco trying to resist or screaming in pain from the injuries she'd received,'' Mr Raftery said
"He knew from that minute she was alive.''
Earlier today, the defendant reinstated his defence team.
The man, who has name suppression, sacked his lawyer Chris Wilkinson-Smith last month at the beginning of the trial.
Today the court was told that he had applied to Legal Aid to have Mr Wilkinson-Smith reinstated.
That application was approved and the jury was informed of the development before proceedings continued today.
Up until now Mr Wilkinson-Smith was acting as amicus curiae, or friend of the court - someone who is not party to the case but can offer information relating to it that can assist the court.
Mr Raftery said the GPS evidence had shown the defendant had "a good scout around'' two cemeteries in quick succession - Eskdale and Birkenhead.
"Just thinking about it, it's just highly odd he should go to another cemetery having just inspected one for 10 to 12 minutes,'' he said.
The defendant had explained his presence on Salisbury Rd by saying he was looking for a drug house after a stranger had tipped him off about two spots.
But Mr Raftery said he never went to Beach Haven to check the other tip, despite claiming to be desperate for cannabis.
"It's a story like the whole of his story. It's made up to fit in with the evidence,'' he said.
There was also scepticism about his claim he was worried about getting home before his 8pm curfew, imposed by Corrections.
"This wasn't a man concerned about his curfew as he was getting a victim before his curfew,'' Mr Raftery said.
