Prosecutors' supplemental investigation found that the original purpose of Jang Yoon-gi's (23) crime—stabbing and killing a high school girl on a street in Gwangju Metropolitan City—was sexual assault.
The Criminal Division 3 of the Gwangju District Prosecutors' Office (Chief Prosecutor Kim Jin-hee) said on the 2nd that it indicted Jang Yoon-gi under detention on charges including violation of the Act on Special Cases Concerning the Punishment of Sexual Crimes (rape, etc., murder) and attempted murder.
Earlier, Jang Yoon-gi was charged with killing 17-year-old second-year high school student Lee Chae-won, whom he did not know, at about 12:10 a.m. on the 5th on a sparsely traveled walkway on a street in Wolgye-dong, Gwangsan-gu, Gwangju.
In a police investigation, Jang Yoon-gi said, "Life wasn't fun. I was contemplating suicide when I decided to commit the crime, and I planned to take someone with me," claiming the act was impulsive.
Police determined that Jang Yoon-gi courted a foreign national, identified only as A (26), who worked at the same restaurant, and after being rejected, took out his anger on Lee and killed her, and referred the case to prosecutors. Police applied charges including ordinary murder under the Criminal Act to Jang Yoon-gi.
After receiving the Jang Yoon-gi case from police, prosecutors extended the detention period and conducted supplemental investigations, including a search and seizure of his residence, seizure and analysis of account transaction records, and an integrated psychological analysis.
According to the prosecution's investigation, since 2024, Jang Yoon-gi unilaterally expressed affection toward A, contacting and tailing her and otherwise stalking her. In the early morning on the 3rd, he broke into A's home, strangled her from behind to subdue her, and raped her. He also confined A for 13 hours, and when A informed an acquaintance of the assault that afternoon, he decided to kill her and searched for A until the evening of the 4th.
To evade investigators' pursuit, Jang Yoon-gi wandered around the Wolgye-dong area and, around 12 a.m. on the 5th, spotted victim Lee walking along the street. Intending to rape Lee, he tailed her for 15 minutes. He tried to subdue the victim by strangling her from behind, the same method used on A. But when the victim fiercely resisted and kept shouting, "Please save me," Jang drew a weapon and stabbed the victim multiple times in the neck area and elsewhere, killing her.
Based on these findings, prosecutors changed the murder charge applied to Jang Yoon-gi to a charge under the sexual violence punishment law (rape, etc., murder). If indicted for ordinary murder, a defendant faces the death penalty, life imprisonment, or at least five years in prison, but rape, etc., murder is punishable only by the death penalty or life imprisonment.
At about 12:12 a.m. on the 5th, when B (17), a boy, ran to the scene after hearing Lee's screams, Jang Yoon-gi told him, "Please call 119." When B looked down at his phone, Jang tried to kill him by stabbing a weapon toward the left side of B's neck, but B resisted fiercely and the attempt failed.
In addition, in June to July last year, while serving as a social service agent at a local community child center, Jang Yoon-gi secretly filmed a middle school girl seven times with his phone camera, focusing on her thighs and other areas while she sat with her legs spread in short shorts, and was also indicted for violating the sexual violence punishment law (camera use, etc.).
Through an integrated psychological analysis by the Supreme Prosecutors' Office, prosecutors confirmed that the claim of an "impulsive crime" lacked credibility. At Jang Yoon-gi's residence, a sex doll with the chest and neck areas damaged was found.
Personal details of Jang Yoon-gi, including date of birth and facial photos, were ordered disclosed at the police investigation stage, considering the public's right to know and the gravity of the harm. The bereaved family of Lee recently disclosed their daughter's name and face and called for stern punishment. The family asked that she be remembered not as "the high school student murder case victim" but as "Lee Chae-won," and urged the court to impose the maximum sentence allowed by law so that the same tragedy is never repeated.
The Gwangju District Prosecutors' Office said, "Going forward, a dedicated investigation team will handle the trial to do everything possible so that a 'severe sentence commensurate with the crime' is handed down to the defendant."