Prosecutors sought prison terms of 5 years and 7 years for a taekwondo studio employee and the head instructor, respectively, who were put on trial on charges of attempting to murder the employee's husband with drugged alcohol and a weapon. The victimized husband appealed for leniency, saying his wife had been gaslighted.

At a sentencing hearing held on the 31st before Criminal Division 1 of the Bucheon branch of the Incheon District Court, prosecutors requested 5 years in prison for taekwondo studio employee A, a woman in her 40s indicted on charges including attempted murder and preparation for murder, and 7 years for head instructor B, a woman in her 20s. They also sought a 10-year attachment of an electronic location-tracking device and 5 years of probation.

B, a woman in her 40s who works at a taekwondo studio, and A, a woman in her 20s who is the head instructor and an accomplice, are accused of trying to murder B's husband by spiking his alcohol with drugs (B at right). /Courtesy of News1

Testifying as a witness, A's husband said that his wife had been gaslighted and assaulted by B, and that because their son attended the taekwondo studio, she could not refuse B's demands out of fear their child would be harmed. He added, "This case has destroyed our family, and our child misses their mother terribly. Please show leniency to my wife, who was kind throughout our 13 years of marriage."

However, prosecutors countered that based on the two people's KakaoTalk messages, it is hard to see A as having committed the crime because she could not resist coercion. According to prosecutors, when B asked how to conceal signs of poisoning after the husband's death, A replied, "I will say I don't know or say it was suicide." In response to a question about whether she wanted to break up with her husband, it was found that she said, "I don't want to break up; I want to be bereaved."

In her final statement, A apologized to her husband, saying she "committed a grave wrongdoing due to a vain delusion." B's side acknowledged the charges but argued that B did not gaslight A or order her to commit the crime. Their sentencing hearing is scheduled for Sept. 30.

A and B were indicted on charges of attempting three times to kill A's husband with drugged alcohol and a weapon at A's home in Bucheon, Gyeonggi, from on the 26th to on the 6th of last month. They are also accused of mixing a tranquilizer into soju and handing it to the husband, and of wielding a weapon and causing an injury to the back of his neck requiring five weeks of treatment.

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