By Kim Rahn
The Supreme Court on Friday upheld a lower court’s ruling that handed a 22-year prison sentence to a former college professor on charges of murdering his wife and abandoning her body.
The 54-year-old former professor, surnamed Kang, abetted with his extramarital lover, 52-year-old Choi, to kill his wife. Choi was sentenced to five years in prison.
“We acknowledge the appellate court’s ruling that Kang plotted the crime in detail, purchasing a bag to transport the body, picking a site where he would dispose of it and visiting the place several times. It was a premeditated killing,” the top court said.
“Choi also deserves harsh punishment because she assisted in Kang’s murder and helped him get rid of the body.”
It was the second marriage for Kang, a computer criminology professor at a university in South Gyeongsang Province, with the victim in 2010. But he often quarreled with her over money and they filed for divorce.
Worrying that the second divorce suit would damage his social reputation and his career, he decided to kill her, dispose of the corpse and disguise it as a missing-persons case, according to the prosecution.
He strangled his wife to death in his car at a hotel parking lot in Busan in April last year. He then placed her body in a bag and threw it into the Nakdong River from Eulsukdo Bridge.
Choi helped him select where the body should be abandoned and helped him carry the body to the bridge following the murder.
Kang reported to the police that his wife had gone missing. Her body was found afloat in the river and police launched an investigation.
Previously a district court in Busan sentenced Kang to 30 years of prison and 10 years to Choi.
But the appellate court lowered the verdict for Kang to 22 years because he had no previous criminal record. For Choi, it was halved by applying only the charges of abetting in the murder and hiding corpse, saying there was no evidence showing she took part in the actual killing.