A university student who fatally stabbed her grandfather has been sentenced to five years in prison.
The Seoul Northern District Court's 11th criminal division, presided over by Chief Judge Choi Kyung-seo, handed down the sentence on the 23rd to a 24-year-old woman surnamed Noh. The court found it difficult to establish intent to kill and instead applied the charge of inflicting bodily injury resulting in the death of a lineal ascendant. The five-year term is the statutory minimum for that offense.
"While the defendant appears to have been subjected to unfair treatment by the victim, a crime that caused death through bodily injury cannot be justified," the court said in explaining its sentencing. The court cited as mitigating factors that the victim's bereaved family — who are also Noh's relatives — do not want her punished, that Noh has acknowledged the facts of the case and shown remorse, and that she has no prior criminal record.
Noh is accused of stabbing her grandfather, who was in his 80s, in the shoulder with a fruit knife at about 11:50 a.m. on May 18 during an argument at their home in Dapsimni-dong, Dongdaemun-gu. The grandfather was taken to a hospital but died. After the stabbing, Noh called the emergency number 119 herself and performed CPR, and was later arrested by police on an emergency warrant.
Noh's defense had argued throughout the trial that she had endured years of verbal and physical abuse from her grandfather. On the day of the incident, the defense said, she had only meant to frighten him into stopping the violence and had no intent to kill.
"If she had intended to kill, she could have carried out the act by stabbing the chest, yet she aimed at the victim's shoulder when she swung the knife," the court said. "Someone who intends to kill, even with indirect intent, typically stabs a vital area."
The court added that Noh "had gone into her room to avoid the argument, but the victim kept coming in and swearing at her and would not stop, and at that point she impulsively picked up the knife and went in front of the victim to make him stop." The court also said the wound appears to have proved fatal because the knife happened to miss the bone and penetrate the chest cavity.
Investigators, including the prosecution service, had argued that Noh acted with intent to kill, pointing to searches she made about killing through an artificial intelligence application and to a note she left with negative content saying her grandfather "looks down on me because I'm a woman."
The court rejected that argument, noting that she had asked the AI only two questions and that the responses dealt with controlling impulses and pointed her toward psychiatric counseling.
The court also found that Noh's note included the line "the only revenge is for me to do well," showing a will to work through the conflict in a constructive way. That Noh admitted the act during police questioning and performed CPR under the direction of paramedics was another reason the court found it difficult to establish intent to kill.
In her final statement, Noh said: "I am sorry for committing the worst crime a person can commit. I will atone and atone again until the day I die."