30s Male in Jeju Open Car Death Case Sentenced to 4 Years in Prison

Supreme Court
Photo by Asia Economy

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyung-min] A man in his 30s who caused the death of his girlfriend while driving a rented open car in a drunken state in Jeju Island has been sentenced to four years in prison.

The Supreme Court's First Division (Presiding Justice No Tae-ak) on the morning of the 12th upheld the original sentence of four years in prison for A (36), who was indicted on charges of murder and violation of the Road Traffic Act (drunk driving). The court stated, "There is no legal error in the original ruling that acquitted the defendant of murder due to insufficient evidence of the crime."

This case became widely known as the "Jeju Open Car Death Incident" after being aired on SBS's "Unanswered Questions" in September 2021. A was prosecuted for causing the death of his girlfriend, who was riding with him without wearing a seatbelt, by driving recklessly. At the time of the incident, he was driving at 114 km/h and collided with a nearby cultivator and road curbs. During the crash, the girlfriend was ejected from the car and lost her life. It was revealed that A was driving while heavily intoxicated. His blood alcohol concentration was 0.118%, significantly exceeding the license cancellation threshold of 0.08%.

The trial focused on whether A intentionally drove recklessly to cause his girlfriend's death, determining if it was intentional murder. The first trial sentenced him to one year in prison with a two-year probation, but the second trial overturned the original verdict and sentenced him to four years in prison. The second trial court recognized both A's drunk driving charge under the Road Traffic Act and the charge of causing death by dangerous driving under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Crimes, which the prosecution added as a subsidiary charge during the second trial. However, the murder charge was acquitted. The court ruled, "It is difficult to recognize intent to murder based solely on the submitted evidence."