A man in his 40s who successively murdered his older brother and father to secure property inheritance has been sentenced to life imprisonment in the first trial for the murder of his older brother.

Today (August 11), the Busan District Court sentenced the defendant, indicted on charges including robbery-murder and violations of the Narcotics Control Act, to life imprisonment.

The defendant is accused of feeding his older brother a drink laced with Zolpidem at his brother's home in Seoul in December 2024 to render him unconscious, and then forcibly shoving a boiled egg into his mouth, causing him to suffocate and die.

During the initial police investigation, the defendant admitted to killing his older brother, but during the trial, he denied the charges, claiming that "it is possible the brother choked and suffered airway obstruction while eating the egg on his own."

However, the court found him guilty based on the facts that the older brother had no history of being prescribed or taking Zolpidem yet lethal amounts of the drug were detected in his body, and that the defendant had searched for Zolpidem in advance and prepared the eggs.

Investigations also revealed that after the brother's death, when their father inherited the rights to the property, the defendant demanded that the father renounce them. Upon facing refusal, the defendant murdered his father in his 60s by stabbing him 14 times with a weapon in March of last year.

Previously, the defendant was indicted first for the murder of his father and was sentenced to 27 years in prison in the first trial for that case.

The court stated the sentencing rationale: "The nature of the crime is extremely grave as it was a premeditated and meticulous offense that used family members as tools, but considering the defendant's age, environment, and upbringing, it is difficult to conclude that there is absolutely no room for rehabilitation, thus sentencing him to life imprisonment instead of the death penalty."

(Photo: Yonhap News)