Patterson guilty of 'Itaewon murder,' gets 20 years

Arthur Patterson / Yonhap

Seoul Central District Court on Friday sentenced Arthur John Patterson to 20 years in prison after finding him guilty of a 1997 murder.

The “Itaewon murder” refers to the killing of South Korean student Cho Joong-pil, who was stabbed nine times in a Burger King restroom in Itaewon, Seoul in April 1997.

Patterson and his friend Edward Lee were the only two at the site of the murder. Both accused the other of the murder. Lee was indicted for murder and received a heavy jail sentence, but the Supreme Court ordered him to be acquitted in September 1999 on lack of evidence. Patterson, indicted for possessing an illegal weapon, was imprisoned for about eight months and released on Aug. 15. He then fled to the United States in 1999.

Patterson was extradited to Korea in September last year.