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| Cho Hyun-jin, 27, accused of stabbing his ex-girlfriend to death, speaks at a police station in Cheonan, Jan. 21. Newsis |
An appellate court on Tuesday handed out a 30-year prison term for a 27-year-old man accused of stabbing his ex-girlfriend to death after she told him she wanted to break up with him, a sentence heavier than a lower court's 23-year term.
Cho Hyun-jin has been charged with murdering the former girlfriend in the bathroom of her home in Cheonan, 86 kilometers south of Seoul, on Jan. 12 shortly after she told him she wanted to break up with him.
He allegedly stabbed her multiple times in the locked bathroom while the victim's mother was visiting her house. She later died while being treated at a hospital.
The Daejeon High Court on Tuesday rejected Cho's claim the killing was "accidental" and he was not aware of the presence of the victim's mother, handing out a 30-year prison sentence. The court also ordered him to wear an electronic tracking device for 15 years.
The lower court had given him a 23-year term, saying the mother appears to have felt extreme pain at the crime scene.
"Cho prepared and committed the crime in an hour just because she told him she wanted to break up, and her mother's presence doesn't seems to have deterred him," the appellate court said. (Yonhap)
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