The mother of the “Itaewon murder” victim pleaded for the heaviest form of punishment for the suspect ahead of the trial, Wednesday.
“Judge, prosecutor, please give the suspect the harshest punishment, for the sake of my son,” Lee Bok-su, 73, mother of the victim Cho Choong-pil, said.
Seoul District Court held the first official hearing for Arthur Patterson, 36, who is charged with murdering the 22-year-old Cho in a fast food chain in Itaewon in 1997.
"Patterson was a juvenile offender aged below 18 at the time, but according to the law on special cases concerning specific violent crimes, the statutory penalty amounts to 20 years imprisonment," the prosecution said.
The defendant said parts of the prosecution's understanding of the case are incorrect and claimed innocence, saying it had also mistranslated Patterson's words.
Edward Lee, who has with Patterson at the crime scene at the time, attended as a witness.
Patterson, 17 at the time, was with his friend Lee at the scene where Cho was murdered, in the bathroom of a fast food chain in Itaewon on April 3, 1997.
Cho was stabbed to death after the two went into the bathroom, but Patterson and Lee claimed each other committed the crime. Lee was previously indicted as the suspect but was acquitted in 1998.