Supreme Court Confirms 14-Year Sentence for Accomplice in 'Pattaya Murder Case'

The accomplice in the so-called 'Pattaya Murder Case,' in which a Korean programmer was killed in Thailand in 2015, has been finally sentenced to 14 years in prison. Following the main perpetrator's 17-year sentence confirmed last November for the same case, a heavy sentence was also imposed on the accomplice.

On the 16th, the Supreme Court's 2nd Division (Presiding Justice Lee Dong-won) upheld the original sentence of 14 years imprisonment for Yoon (41), who was charged with murder and corpse abandonment. The ruling also maintained the inclusion of 10 years of electronic monitoring device (electronic anklet) attachment and 4 years and 6 months served in Thailand as part of the prison term.

Yoon repeatedly appealed and filed petitions, claiming that the assault was carried out by the main perpetrator Kim (40) and that his own involvement was minor, but these were rejected.

Supreme Court in Seocho-dong, Seoul.

The court stated, "There is no error in the original judgment that would affect the verdict, such as failing to conduct necessary hearings, violating the rules of logic and experience beyond the limits of free evaluation of evidence, misunderstanding the intent of murder, the scope of application of Article 7 of the Criminal Act (crediting sentences served abroad), or the legal principles regarding voluntary surrender."

Yoon was charged with killing Korean programmer A (24 at the time of death) by beating him with a blunt object and abandoning the body in a car in Pattaya, Thailand, in November 2015, along with the main perpetrator Kim. The two had employed A to manage an illegal gambling site in Thailand but habitually assaulted him because he failed to develop the system on time. When A attempted to escape, they confined him, and after A recorded the assault and uploaded the file to a file-sharing site, they became enraged and killed him, according to the investigation.

Yoon surrendered to the Thai police after the crime. Including other charges such as drug offenses, he was sentenced to a total of 15 years in prison and served 6 years and 5 months before being pardoned in 2021 and repatriated to Korea. Yoon argued that the entire 6 years and 5 months detained in Thailand should be counted toward his sentence, but the lower court ruled that only part of it (4 years and 6 months) should be included since the sentence also covered other crimes, and the Supreme Court finally confirmed this ruling.