![Jang Yun-gi (23), facing charges including murder, is transferred from the Western Police Station in Gwangju's Seo-gu to prosecutors. [Newsis]](https://wimg.heraldcorp.com/news/cms/2026/06/21/news-p.v1.20260602.0343d77046114ff297cbcd9cf1eada86_P1.jpg)
The first trial of Jang Yun-gi (23), who allegedly stabbed and killed a high school girl on a street in Gwangju, is set to open Monday.
The 13th Criminal Division of the Gwangju District Court, presided over by Chief Judge Lee Jeong-ho, is scheduled to hold the opening hearing at 10 a.m. Monday. Jang was indicted and detained on charges including rape-murder under the Act on Special Cases Concerning the Punishment of Sexual Violence Crimes.
Jang is accused of attempting to abduct a second-year high school girl for the purpose of sexual assault at around 12:10 a.m. on May 5 on a secluded pedestrian path in Wolge-dong, Gwangsan-gu, Gwangju. When she resisted, he allegedly stabbed her to death.
The indictment also includes charges that Jang wielded a weapon against a male high school 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, with whom he had worked a part-time job.
Throughout the police and prosecutors' investigation, Jang repeatedly claimed the attack was impulsive, saying he had been contemplating suicide at the time.
Prosecutors applied the charge of rape-murder rather than ordinary murder, citing evidence that Jang had subdued the victim from behind and attempted to drag her toward a vehicle — a method and sequence they said matched the circumstances of the sexual assault he committed against A.
A conviction for rape-murder carries only the death penalty or life imprisonment, whereas 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.
sij@heraldcorp.com
