[Herald DB]
[Herald DB]

A man in his 20s who killed a taxi driver during a late-night dispute has had his 35-year prison sentence confirmed by the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court's Second Division, presided over by Justice Oh Kyung-mi, last month upheld the lower court's ruling sentencing A (22) — indicted on charges of murder, attempted murder and theft — to 35 years in prison and ordering him to wear an electronic tracking device for 20 years.

A is accused of stabbing a taxi driver in his 60s, identified as B, dozens of times with a bladed weapon in the early hours of June 26 last year on a road in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province, killing him.

The driver had followed A's directions but became lost after failing to find the destination and struck an object. He then told A he could not continue to the destination and asked him to pay the fare before stepping out of the driver's seat.

Enraged, A pulled a weapon from his bag and carried out the attack, according to investigators.

A also faces charges of attempted murder for getting behind the wheel and ramming two nearby residents — a man in his 50s identified as C and a man in his 60s identified as D — who had come to the scene after hearing the driver's screams and were attempting to call police. He also faces a theft charge for driving off in the taxi.

C and the other resident sustained fractures and bruises and received hospital treatment; their lives were not in danger.

About an hour after the attack, at around 4:40 a.m. the same day, police responding to a report of "a vehicle with no wheels driving around" in Bangbae-dong, Seocho-gu, Seoul arrested A.

He had self-inflicted wounds to his hand and was taken to a nearby hospital for surgery.

The first-instance court sentenced A to 35 years in prison and ordered him to wear an electronic tracking device for 20 years.

A argued he had been in a state of diminished mental capacity due to delusional disorder, but the court rejected the claim, saying that even if he had suffered from unspecified schizophrenia, there was no basis to conclude it had affected his ability to distinguish right from wrong or make decisions at the time of the crime.

"The defendant cruelly and brutally killed a victim he had never met before, and rammed nearby residents with the taxi to prevent them from reporting the crime," the court said. "Given the cruelty and viciousness of the act, its circumstances, means and consequences, severe punishment commensurate with his culpability is unavoidable."

The court added that the physical pain and psychological shock the victim must have suffered were immense, and that the bereaved family had sustained wounds that could never be undone — grief and devastation the court said it could scarcely fathom. "Yet there is nothing to suggest the defendant has made any effort toward recovery for the victims," it said.

However, the court declined to impose the death penalty sought by prosecutors, explaining that it could not conclusively find that circumstances clearly justifying capital punishment had been established, given that the defendant's condition appeared to have had some influence on parts of the crime and that he retained at least minimal family ties.

The appellate court and the Supreme Court both found no error in this reasoning and dismissed the final appeal.


yeonjoo7@heraldcorp.com