A man in his 30s who killed his father with a weapon and hid the body in a water tank in the underground parking lot of an apartment has been sentenced to 15 years in prison. The sentence was reduced from 20 years by the appellate court citing the defendant’s claim of mental illness, which the lower court denied.
The appellate court of the Supreme Court, led by Justice Oh Kyung-mi, upheld the lower court’s decision to sentence the 32-year-old man named Kim to 15 years in prison for the charges of murder and body concealment, along with a 10-year period of electronic monitoring.
The court explained that the initial 20-year sentence imposed by the lower court was not deemed unjust considering the circumstances. Kim was diagnosed with grade 3 autism in 1999 at the age of 7, and he harbored discontent towards his father for frequently nagging at him for various things such as playing games, watching TV, controlling diet, memorizing English words, and managing finances, unlike his mother who he felt listened to him better.
Kim planned the murder while his mother was away on a trip with relatives to Jeju Island, purchasing supplies like duct tape and wet wipes for concealing the body. On May 29, 2023, he fatally stabbed his father multiple times in the kitchen and meticulously attempted to cover up the crime scene by cleaning and tampering with surveillance cameras.
Initially, the district court sentenced Kim to 20 years in prison and electronic monitoring for 10 years, rejecting the defense’s arguments of mental illness based on his autism diagnosis. However, the appellate court considered the defendant’s condition of limited ability to discern objects and make decisions due to autism, leading to the sentence reduction to 15 years.
The court also took into account Kim’s IQ test results in 2014 and psychological evaluations indicating his impairments in social maturity, decision-making, and adaptability. Despite evidence of planning the crime and efforts to conceal his actions, the court believed that his actions reflected his lack of judgment and social deficiencies due to autism.
Kim’s attempt to appeal the verdict was dismissed by the Supreme Court, which found no issues with the appellate court’s decision based on his autism-related limitations and the nature of his crime.