“Stock Losses While Caring for Aunt”... Man in His 40s Attacks Cousin with a Weapon

Claimed "Make up for my losses"...also charged with aggravated property damage
First trial: 4-year prison sentence...appeals court: "Sentence not unjust"

A man in his 40s who attacked his cousin with a weapon, claiming he suffered losses because he could not sell his stocks while caring for his aunt, was again sentenced to a prison term on appeal.

According to a report by News1 and the legal community on the 15th, the Third Criminal Division of the Suwon High Court (Presiding High Court Judge Kim Jonggi) dismissed the appeal of Mr. A, who had been arrested and indicted on charges of attempted murder and sentenced to four years in prison in the first trial.

Mr. A was previously accused of injuring his cousin, Ms. B, who is in her 50s, by wielding a weapon at her on a street in front of a villa in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, at around 4 p.m. on July 20 last year. It was confirmed that Mr. A, who was intoxicated, went to see Ms. B, got into an argument with her, and then committed the crime. Fortunately, Ms. B’s life was not in danger.

Mr. A works as a caregiver and, from 2020 to 2021, he received a certain amount of financial support from the state while caring for his aunt, Ms. C, who is also Ms. B’s mother. However, during this period he harassed Ms. B, claiming, “Because I was nursing her, I missed the timing to sell my stocks and suffered tens of millions of won in losses, so you must compensate me for that.” In the course of this, Mr. A was also punished on charges of aggravated property damage.

The first-instance court stated in its sentencing reasons, “This is a case where the defendant attempted to kill the victim, his maternal cousin, by stabbing her four times with a weapon but failed to complete the crime,” and added, “A person’s life is an absolute value that cannot be exchanged for anything else, and therefore crimes that attempt to violate it must be strictly punished, even if they end in an attempt.”

Mr. A appealed, but the appellate court likewise ruled, “Even if the defendant reached a settlement with the victim at this court, considering the brutality of the crime in this case and other various circumstances, the sentence handed down by the lower court cannot be deemed unjust.”