- Woman died of stab wounds, South Korean investigators found.
- Man told police he would take his own life.
- Supreme Court upholds high court, district court verdicts.
A crypto chief who threw his girlfriend off the 19th-floor after stabbing her during a heated row has failed to clear his name — and will spend the next 25 years behind bars.
The South Korean Supreme Court upheld a previous district court sentence handed out to the unnamed man, aged in his 30s, rejecting his legal team’s claims that his mental health had been compromised.
“We have taken into account the fact that the defendant had been receiving psychiatric counseling since middle school and that he committed the crime while in a state of mental weakness,” a panel of Supreme Court judges said in sentencing. “However, the district court’s decision was correct in its understanding of the laws regarding mental disorders.”
The gory incident is just one of a growing string of macabre crypto-related crimes reported in South Korea.
Earlier this year, police accused a crypto investor of spiking his business partner’s iced latte with a deadly dose of toxic pesticide after a financial dispute.
‘Multiple stab wounds’
Prosecutors told the court the defendant ran a crypto investment company, and began dating his girlfriend in August 2020, South Korean media outlet EDaily reported.
In February 2021, the duo began living together in a 19th-floor apartment of a residential complex in the Seocho District of Seoul. But as the crypto markets experienced volatility, the man’s financial situation worsened.
He complained he was finding it hard to pay his rent and other expenses. During this time, the woman found a job, which stoked the defendant’s fury.
“I want to die,” he told her, prosecutors told the court.
Prosecutors said that during this time, the defendant “became increasingly possessive” towards the woman.
When she complained she was “unable to put up with his continuous obsession” on March 11, 2023, and demanded a breakup, the man “stabbed her about 10 times with a weapon,” prosecutors said.
He then attempted to disguise the death as a suicide by throwing her out of a balcony window.
The man called the police, claiming that he was also planning to take his own life, but a police unit arrived at the apartment before he could act.
An autopsy later determined the woman had died as a result of stab wounds.
‘No remorse’
During their investigation, detectives found evidence of drug use and charged the man with violations of the Narcotics Control Act.
Police later established that the man had also begun selling illegal drugs before the murder.
The district court found the man guilty of all charges, also fining him over $2,000.
In sentencing, the presiding district court judge said the woman “must have suffered unendurable pain” before her death.
“Her family also suffered deep wounds that are difficult to heal, and demand severe punishment,” said the same judge.
The man appealed the verdict at a branch of the high court last year. But the appellate court upheld the sentence, saying the defendant had shown “insufficient remorse.”
Tim Alper is a News Correspondent at DL News. Got a tip? Email him at tdalper@dlnews.com.
