Cable Ties at Center of Botched Investigation Not Recognized as Evidence

The cable ties that triggered a controversy over a botched police investigation in the Jang Yoon-ki case did not affect the guilty verdict for rape and murder.

On the 30th, the 13th Criminal Division of the Gwangju District Court sentenced Jang Yoon-ki, who was indicted on charges including rape and murder, to life imprisonment, ruling that the prosecution's claim that the defendant attempted to bind the victim's wrists and ankles with cable ties is difficult to accept.

The court determined that the cable ties, which were kept sealed inside Jang's car, were unlikely to have been used as a crime tool given his meticulous methods in other aspects of the crime.

When Jang murdered a high school girl in May, the cable ties remained in their unopened packaging inside the storage compartment of the front passenger seat of Jang's vehicle.

The court explained that the defendant appeared to have carried and attempted to abduct the victim into the back seat while the car doors were wide open, concluding based on the court's own estimation that the cable ties were not viewed as an instrument of the crime.

During previous trial hearings, Jang's legal team also countered the prosecution's claims, stating that the cable ties had been purchased to organize computer wires and were simply left in the car.

The cable ties, which investigations showed were purchased by Jang in December of last year about five months before the crime, went missing during the police investigation stage and their physical evidence was secured only during the prosecution's supplementary investigation stage.

The cable ties were kept by Jang's father, who took over his son's vehicle from the police on May 6, the day after the incident, before being seized by the prosecution.

Team leader Park of the violent crimes unit at the Gwangju Gwangsan Police Station, who handed the vehicle over to Jang's father without securing the cable ties as seized evidence despite discovering them during the initial vehicle forensic examination, was arrested and indicted on charges including aiding and abetting the concealment of evidence.

Nevertheless, Jang was found guilty of all charges in the indictment, including the abduction and sex-crime-motivated murder of the high school girl, even without the cable ties.

Jang's indictment charges included not only the murder of the high school girl, but also repeated stalking and sexual assault of a Vietnamese female part-time work colleague, causing bodily injury requiring approximately three weeks of medical treatment, confinement for about 13 hours, and preparation for retaliatory murder in response to reporting to the police.

In addition, regarding charges including covertly filming the bodies of young women seven times while serving as a social service agent last year, the court criticized the acts as deviant behavior while explaining the reasoning for the sentence.
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.