A teenager who was sentenced to 20 years in prison?the maximum sentence under the Juvenile Act?for murdering a female high school student of the same age on Christmas Day has filed an appeal.
According to the law office representing the victim's family on May 15, the teenage defendant, referred to as A, recently submitted a notice of appeal against the first trial verdict.
On May 1, the Criminal Division 1 of the Jinju Branch of the Changwon District Court, presided over by Chief Judge Kim Kidong, sentenced A to 20 years in prison and ordered 20 years of electronic monitoring for murder.
The court stated, "The defendant's crime was not an act of impulsive anger or spontaneous violence, but a meticulously premeditated murder, making the culpability extremely grave." The court further noted, "The method of the crime was also brutal, as the defendant repeatedly stabbed the victim with a weapon in vital areas directly linked to life."
The court continued, "It is impossible to fully comprehend the sorrow, pain, anger, and trauma that the parents, who lost their only child due to the defendant's crime, must bear," adding, "Therefore, the highest sentence permitted under the Juvenile Act is imposed on the defendant."
According to the court, on December 25 of last year at approximately 8:50 p.m., A is accused of fatally stabbing B, a female teenager of the same age, at the entrance of an apartment building in Sacheon, Gyeongnam.
Living in the Gangwon region, A reportedly traveled to Sacheon, where B lived?a person he had met four years ago in a group chat?and lured her out by saying he had something to give her, before committing the crime with a weapon he had brought in advance.
It was determined that A acted out of jealousy, believing that B had a new boyfriend.
Under current law, when a minor under the age of 18 commits a specified serious crime and would otherwise face the death penalty or life imprisonment, the maximum sentence that can be imposed is 20 years in prison.
At the time of the crime, A was 17 years old.
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