The Supreme Court on Monday upheld a 20-year jail sentence for Jeong Sang-heon, 32, the basketball flameout arrested last year for murdering his sister-in-law and trying to conceal her body in the countryside.
Jeong strangled his wife's twin sister at her home in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province, in June last year. He put the body in the trunk of his car and drove around the countryside for two days before burying her on the outskirts of Seoul.
He also sent text messages from the victim's mobile phone to make others think she was alive.
However, Jeong eventually admitted to police that he had killed her.
Police had become suspicious that he had quickly sold the victim's vehicle to a used car dealer after she went missing.
The Suwon District Court had sentenced Jeong to 25 years' jail in January. But an appellate court lowered the sentence to 20 years, ruling that Jeong's crime was "spontaneous" rather than planned.
As a teenager, Jeong was dubbed as the future of Korean basketball as he dominated high school competition as a 1.94-meter forward with speed and skills. But he failed to live up to expectations as a professional and retired in 2009 after four, nondescript seasons with the Daegu Orions and Ulsan Ulsan Mobis Phoebus.
 |
He also sent text messages from the victim's mobile phone to make others think she was alive.
However, Jeong eventually admitted to police that he had killed her.
Police had become suspicious that he had quickly sold the victim's vehicle to a used car dealer after she went missing.
The Suwon District Court had sentenced Jeong to 25 years' jail in January. But an appellate court lowered the sentence to 20 years, ruling that Jeong's crime was "spontaneous" rather than planned.
As a teenager, Jeong was dubbed as the future of Korean basketball as he dominated high school competition as a 1.94-meter forward with speed and skills. But he failed to live up to expectations as a professional and retired in 2009 after four, nondescript seasons with the Daegu Orions and Ulsan Ulsan Mobis Phoebus.
