A Chinese national who fell into the delusion that he would be killed and brutally murdered a caregiver in her 70s who was looking after him was sentenced to 12 years in prison on appeal.
According to legal sources on the 30th, the Seoul High Court's Criminal Division 5 (Presiding Judge Kwon Soon-hyung) overturned the first-instance sentence of 15 years in prison for A, a Chinese national indicted on a murder charge, and sentenced A to 12 years. The court also ordered medical treatment and custody and the attachment of a location-tracking electronic device (electronic anklet) for 10 years.
A is accused of stabbing and killing B, a caregiver in her 70s, multiple times with a weapon at A's residence in Dec. last year. Investigators found that A was in an extreme state of mental confusion, including sending a KakaoTalk message to the mother just before the crime that read, "I am God. Please believe what I say. It seems B will kill me."
It was found that A committed the crime while gripped by the delusion that B was trying to harm A and that police officers had surrounded the home. The victim, B, was an acquaintance of A's mother and, adding to the tragedy, had reportedly been devotedly caring for A since just a week before the crime.
It was confirmed that in 2012, A also committed attempted murder in Japan but was acquitted at the time on grounds of suspected mental disorder.
On Jul., the court of first instance acknowledged that A's ability to distinguish objects was weak at the time of the crime due to schizophrenia-spectrum disorder, but found that the ability was not completely lost and sentenced A to 15 years in prison. However, the appellate court partially accepted A's claim that the sentence was too heavy.
While the appellate panel noted that "the culpability is very heavy in light of the weapon and method used," it explained the reason for reducing the sentence, saying it considered that "A's mental illness rapidly worsened after being diagnosed with a liver abscess before the crime, and that the bereaved family of the victim, B, is pleading for leniency for A."