A woman in her 20s who was indicted for killing her grandfather, a man in his 80s, at an apartment in Seoul's Dongdaemun District has been sentenced to five years in prison.
The 11th Criminal Division of the Seoul Northern District Court, presided over by Chief Judge Choi Kyung-seo, sentenced Noh, 24, to five years in prison. She had been indicted on a charge of murdering a lineal ascendant.
On the central question of whether she intended to kill, the court said the defendant admitted to the act during the police investigation and performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation on the victim until paramedics arrived after the emergency call was placed. "She did not hide or conceal the knife used in the act," the court said, adding that it was difficult to rule out reasonable doubt as to whether she wielded the knife with the intent to kill.
The court also said the defendant inflicted injury after failing to control a momentary surge of emotion, and that given the outcome of death, the act was an antisocial crime that could not be justified on any grounds. "Because the evidence is insufficient to establish intent to kill, we do not find the charge of murdering a lineal ascendant, but we do find the charge of inflicting injury on a lineal ascendant resulting in death," the court said.
The court noted that the defendant had repeatedly described to her father the verbal abuse and physical violence she suffered from the victim, but that the family had been unable to secure separate housing because of its financial situation. The defendant appeared to have endured the conflict in the belief that saving on housing costs would help fund her studies abroad, and the incident occurred impulsively, the court said. In explaining the sentence, the court cited her remorse, the absence of any prior criminal record and the fact that the victim's surviving relatives, who are also the defendant's family, do not want her punished.
Noh was indicted on charges of stabbing her grandfather, a man in his 80s, to death at their home in Dapsimni-dong, Dongdaemun District, in May this year. Dongdaemun Police Station detained her on the 20th of the same month, citing concerns that she might flee or destroy evidence, and referred the case to prosecutors a week later. Prosecutors sought a 20-year prison term for Noh last month.