A court of first instance has sentenced Jang Yoon-ki to life imprisonment for kidnapping and murdering a high school girl on the street with the intent to commit a sexual crime.

While the court stated that it did not intend to grant any leniency, the victim's grieving family, who had called for the maximum legal sentence, protested the ruling as unfair, expressing concerns over the potential parole of Jang, who is still in his early 20s.

The 13th Criminal Division of the Gwangju District Court sentenced Jang Yoon-ki to life imprisonment today on charges including rape and murder under the Act on Special Cases Concerning the Punishment, etc. of Sexual Crimes.

The court also ordered Jang to wear a location-tracking electronic device for 10 years and imposed a 10-year employment ban at institutions related to children, adolescents, and people with disabilities.

The court ruled that all criminal charges against the defendant were proven guilty based on the submitted evidence, and that the prosecutor's argument to permanently isolate the defendant from society was valid.

Explaining the sentencing rationale, the court cited factors such as South Korea being a de facto abolitionist state regarding the death penalty, the lack of an absolute life sentence to bridge the gap between the death penalty and life imprisonment, and relevant Supreme Court precedents.

During the roughly 20-minute explanation of the verdict, the court mentioned public sentiment, pointed out the brutality of the crimes and the lack of remorse shown during the investigation, but also noted the difficulties in handing down a death sentence to Jang under the current judicial system.

The court emphasized that the true reason for inevitably handing down a life sentence was to permanently isolate the defendant from society, forcing him to repent for the rest of his life amid the hardships of imprisonment, rather than intending any leniency at the execution stage.

Jang listened to the verdict with his head bowed the entire time and walked out of the courtroom without any change in expression after the sentencing concluded.

The mother of the victim, Lee Chae-won, who watched from the gallery, broke down in tears and was unable to leave her seat for about 15 minutes.

The parents and legal representative of the victim held a press conference outside the courthouse, stating that the ruling was unacceptable as it failed to consider the sorrow of the bereaved family.

They argued that if the death penalty is not handed down, life imprisonment without the possibility of parole should be institutionalized by law to permanently isolate violent criminals from society.

Jang was brought to trial for kidnapping Lee, who was on her way home, with a vehicle around 12:10 AM on May 5 in Wolgok-dong, Gwangsan-gu, Gwangju, South Jeolla Province, attempting to sexually assault her, and murdering her when the attempt failed.

At the time, Jang also swung a weapon at a second-year high school male student who rushed to the scene after hearing screams.

Jang's criminal record also included multiple sexual offenses, such as stalking and sexually assaulting a female part-time work colleague two days before the murder, and secretly filming the bodies of teenage females while serving as a social service worker.

The prosecution conducted supplementary investigations into the case, which was initially transferred under the charge of ordinary murder under the Criminal Act, to clarify Jang's intent to commit sexual crimes such as kidnapping and sexual assault, and indicted him on charges of rape and murder.

Murders combined with major crimes such as rape and robbery are punishable only by death or life imprisonment.

The prosecution, which had sought the death penalty for Jang, plans to thoroughly analyze the first-instance ruling to decide whether to appeal.

It also plans to re-examine the cable ties found in Jang's vehicle, which the court did not recognize as instruments of the crime.

The cable ties, which had sparked controversy over shoddy police investigation, did not affect this guilty verdict.

The court judged that the cable ties, which had been kept in a sealed state, could not have been used as a tool to bind the victim given the meticulous nature of the crime method.

Like the cable ties, the damaged real doll that also triggered controversy over a shoddy investigation was recognized as evidence based solely on submitted photographs and videos without the physical object.

The police, who transferred Jang to the prosecution on ordinary murder charges, now face judicial punishment following the controversy over a lenient and shoddy investigation.

Frontline detectives who handed over the physical real doll to Jang's father—who is a fellow police officer—and failed to secure the cable ties as evidence are standing trial on charges including aiding and abetting the destruction of evidence.

The then-chief and head of the detective division of the Gwangju Gwangsan Police Station, who handled the frontline investigation, were recently transferred to the prosecution, and four commanding officers from the Korean National Police Agency's National Office of Investigation who ordered the separation of the murder and sex crime investigations were also indicted.
 
(Photo: Yonhap News)