![Jang Yun-gi [Gwangju Police Agency]](https://wimg.heraldcorp.com/news/cms/2026/06/20/news-p.v1.20260620.b567228d4b71489db32689e158217bfe_P1.jpg)
The first trial of Jang Yun-gi, 23, who killed 17-year-old Lee Chae-won — a stranger he attacked on the street — is set to open Monday, exactly 49 days after her death.
The Gwangju District Court's Criminal Division 13, presided over by Judge Lee Jeong-ho, is scheduled to hold the opening hearing at 10 a.m. Monday in the case against Jang. He has been indicted on charges including rape-murder under the Act on Special Cases Concerning the Punishment of Sexual Violence Crimes, according to legal sources Saturday.
Jang is accused of abducting a female high school sophomore on a deserted pedestrian path in Wolge-dong, Gwangsan-gu, Gwangju, at around 12:10 a.m. on May 5 with the intent to sexually assault her, then stabbing her to death when she resisted.
The indictment also includes charges that Jang wielded a weapon against a male student who tried to help the victim at the scene, and that he stalked and sexually assaulted a female coworker, identified only as A, a Vietnamese national in her 20s.
During the police and prosecutors' investigation, Jang repeatedly claimed he had acted impulsively while contemplating suicide.
Prosecutors applied the rape-murder charge rather than ordinary murder, citing evidence that Jang had grabbed the victim from behind and attempted to drag her toward a vehicle — a method consistent with the circumstances of the sexual assault he had committed against A.
A rape-murder conviction carries only the death penalty or life imprisonment. Ordinary murder carries a minimum sentence of five years in prison.
Jang, who has retained a private criminal defense attorney, has not yet submitted a letter of remorse to the court.
The victim, Lee Chae-won, was a high school sophomore who had dreamed of becoming an emergency medical technician.
A memorial service marking the 49th day since her death will be held at 5 p.m. Sunday at the Gwangju Metropolitan Office of Education's Civic Governance Promotion Center.
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