Circumstantial evidence suggesting that Jang Yoon-gi (23), the "high school girl murderer," held distorted views about sex since his school days was submitted to the court.
The 13th criminal division of the Gwangju District Court (Presiding Judge Lee Jeong-ho, Director General) held the third trial for Jang Yoon-gi on the 27th on charges including "rape and other murder." The session proceeded with a written review of additional evidence submitted by prosecutors, followed by the examination of witnesses.
Prosecutors submitted "SNS chat logs" Jang Yoon-gi had separately with a high school classmate and a fellow social service worker. The logs reportedly contain remarks from his high school years in which he told acquaintances he wanted to "kidnap a teenage girl by car and commit a sex crime."
While accepting all of the prosecution's evidence, Jang Yoon-gi's court-appointed attorney said a separate opinion would be filed regarding the prosecution's theory of proof. The defense said, "We do not deny the fact that the defendant engaged in obscene talk," but argued, "Forensic materials show that, if anything, friends initiated sexual conversations first and the defendant responded passively."
The attorney added, "The student record also notes that the defendant was good at going along with friends' pranks," and said, "Conversations with high school classmates and fellow social service workers likewise show that the other party brought up obscene talk first, rather than the defendant."
The court then closed the evidence review and examination of witnesses to the public, citing gruesome content and the need to protect the victim's privacy. Testifying that day were the parents of the late Lee Chae-won (16), who was killed by Jang Yoon-gi, and a male 11th-grade passerby (17) who was seriously injured by Jang's knife attack while trying to help Lee.
If procedures such as the examination of witnesses conclude at this hearing, the fourth session next month is expected to conduct the defendant's questioning of Jang Yoon-gi.
Jang Yoon-gi was indicted on charges including rape-murder and attempted murder for allegedly killing Lee for the purpose of committing a sex crime on May 5 at about 12:10 a.m. on a walkway in Wolgye-dong, Gwangsan-gu, Gwangju, South Jeolla, and wielding a weapon at a male student who ran to the scene after hearing screams. He is also accused of raping a 26-year-old Vietnamese woman who was his part-time coworker two days before the high school girl's murder, and of committing several other sex crimes, including secretly filming the body of a teenage girl during his social service period.