Man, 78, gets 30-year sentence upheld on appeal for killing, mutilating elderly neighbor

A man who killed an elderly neighbor, then mutilated and abandoned her body had his 30-year prison sentence upheld on appeal — a term the court acknowledged amounts to life imprisonment in effect.

Judge Lee Eun-hye of the Seoul High Court's Chuncheon Division Criminal Panel 1 on Wednesday upheld the original sentence against the defendant, identified only as A, 78, on charges of murder, desecration and abandonment of a corpse, and violation of the Stalking Punishment Act. The court dismissed appeals by both sides.

"The defendant killed the victim — with whom he had been in a de facto in-law relationship — under the mistaken belief that she was seeing another man, then brutally mutilated and abandoned her body," the court said. "This gravely undermines the fundamental values of our society: respect for life and respect for the dead."

The court added that A appeared considerably frail and infirm given his advanced age, and that the original sentence was in effect no different from a life term.

A is accused of killing B, a woman in her 80s, on Oct. 3 last year in Sangyang-ri, Sangseo-myeon, Hwacheon-gun, Gangwon Province, then mutilating her body and dumping it by a riverside. B's family reported her missing when they visited during the Chuseok holiday, prompting a search. Police found her body in a nearby stream on Oct. 8 with the help of a search dog named Bolt. A was arrested the following day.

As investigators closed in, A took medication and was hospitalized before being taken into custody. He received a 30-year sentence at trial in January, which the appeals court has now upheld.

Throughout the proceedings, A deflected blame onto the victim. He told the court he killed her because she had been in a common-law marriage with his older brother and was seeing another man while his brother was hospitalized.

When the presiding judge asked whether A had harbored such resentment toward the victim given that his brother had died 15 years earlier, A said only that he felt sorry. He did not submit a single letter of remorse throughout the entire appeals process.

Prosecutors had sought a life sentence at the final hearing, arguing that A showed no genuine remorse despite committing a "bizarre, brutal and unconscionable crime" and that permanent removal from society was necessary to prevent further victims.

The court found no change in circumstances that would warrant a different sentence and upheld the original ruling.

늦잠 자다 현장체험 혼자 간 중2 아이…학부모는 교사에 ‘택시비’ 요구

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