40-Year-Old Man Sentenced to 40 Years for Killing Pregnant Ex-Wife at 7 Months... Unborn Child Also Dies

Fetus Dies 19 Days After Emergency Cesarean Section
Court: "Crime Extremely Cruel... Not in a State of Diminished Responsibility"

A man in his 40s was sentenced to a heavy prison term for brutally murdering his pregnant ex-wife because she was seeing another man.

On the 26th, the 12th Criminal Division of Jeonju District Court (Chief Judge Kim Dohyung) sentenced A (43), who was indicted on charges of murder and attempted murder, to 40 years in prison, according to Yonhap News. The court also ordered a 5-year probation period for A.

Jeonju District Court Exterior View

A was tried on charges of stabbing his ex-wife B, a woman in her 30s, multiple times with a weapon at a hair salon in Hyoja-dong, Wansan-gu, Jeonju, Jeollabuk-do on March 28. A is also accused of injuring B’s boyfriend, who was present at the time, by wielding the weapon against him. At the time of the incident, B was seven months pregnant. B was transported to the hospital in cardiac arrest and died during treatment, but the fetus was saved through an emergency cesarean section. However, the baby, who was in poor health, eventually passed away 19 days after birth.

After the crime, A fled in his car but was caught in Gimje, Jeollabuk-do, within an hour. During the police arrest, he inflicted self-harm on his neck and underwent emergency surgery. Later, during the investigation, A stated, "I committed the crime because I was angry that my ex-wife was seeing another man." Throughout the trial, A consistently claimed diminished mental capacity to seek a reduced sentence. However, the court did not accept this claim.

The court pointed out, "The defendant continued to threaten and harass the victim even after divorcing her and signing a written pledge not to visit her again," and added, "The victim lost her life, which is a precious value incomparable to anything else, due to the defendant’s crime." The court further stated, "Although the defendant was disarmed during a struggle, he picked up the weapon again and killed the victim," and ruled, "The defendant’s crime was extremely brutal and was not forgiven by the victim’s family."

Furthermore, the court explained, "According to the mental evaluation by the National Forensic Hospital, the defendant’s main symptoms at the time of the crime were anxiety and anger, not depression," and "The fact that he wrapped a bandage around the handle of the weapon to prevent slipping and prepared inflammable materials suggests that his mental state was intact at the time," thereby rejecting A’s claim of diminished mental capacity.