A person in their 50s who killed five family members, including their parents and children, was sentenced to life imprisonment in the first trial.
The 13th Criminal Division of the Suwon District Court (Director General Jang Seok-jun) delivered this sentence to Mr. Lee during the sentencing hearing for charges including killings of relatives, murder, and violation of the Act on the Control of Narcotics, etc. on the 28th.
The court noted, "The defendant prepared sleeping pills in advance for killing the victims and set a date for the crime, which, when considering the overall circumstances, cannot be seen as an impulsive act but rather a planned crime. Given that the victims were family members and considering the number of victims, I agree with the prosecutor's view that the defendant should face the heaviest penalty defined by criminal law, the death penalty."
The court continued, "However, the death penalty, which takes away a person's life, requires very careful consideration. Analyzing past cases where the death penalty has been confirmed, it is hard to see it as clearly justified to impose the death penalty on the defendant." It concluded that "imposing life imprisonment, the heaviest punishment aside from the death penalty, to permanently isolate the defendant from society and compel them to atone to their family for life is appropriate."
Mr. Lee, dressed in a brown prison uniform, maintained a stoic expression, bowing his head during the reading of the sentencing reasons by the presiding judge.
Mr. Lee is accused of having administered sleeping pills to his family members, including his elderly parents in their 80s, his wife in her 50s, and two daughters in their 10s and 20s, at his apartment in the Suji district of Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, on the night of April 14 this year, causing them to fall asleep before strangling them one by one.
After the crime, he left a note stating his intent to "kill them all and then die," and fled the following day, early on the 15th, using a vehicle to escape to his residence in Gwangju, where he was apprehended by the police later that morning.
It was investigated that Mr. Lee, who was a representative of a housing construction company, planned the crime after becoming embroiled in civil and criminal lawsuits during the process of engaging in the construction and sale of private apartments in the Gwangju area, leading to a burden of debt amounting to hundreds of millions of won.
The prosecution on the 22nd of last month stated during the closing arguments that the case is "extremely inhumane and antisocial, and the damage is very severe," making it difficult to compare with other family murder cases they have encountered with sorrowful feelings, and sought the death penalty.