Seohyeon Station killer sentenced to life, but victims' families demand more

Police escort Choi Won-jong to the prosecutors' office in Gyeonggi on Aug. 10. [YONHAP]

A court on Thursday sentenced 23-year-old Choi Won-jong, who killed two women and injured 14 in a random attack last year, to life in prison.

Suwon District Court also ordered Choi to wear a tracking device for 30 years if released, as he will be eligible for probation after serving 20 years.

The court said that it imposed a heavy sentence on Choi because the attack was preplanned.

“He drove into two people, killing them, and stabbed people who randomly ran into him,” the judge said.

The judge said that while he understands the prosecution’s and the family’s desire for the heaviest punishment under the law, death, the court’s decision achieves a similar outcome by completely removing the assailant from society.

“By completely separating the defendant from society, we hope to prevent a recurrence of the crime,” the judge said.

The judge rejected Choi’s argument that he had a mental illness.

The court concluded that, despite signs of schizophrenia, including a delusion that an organization was stalking him, Choi had voluntarily refused to undergo mental health treatment recommended by his father.

The court said by avoiding mental health treatment, he had exposed himself to the risk of committing a crime.

“The defendant viewed posts of the Sillim-dong knife rampage that happened 10 days earlier in online communities such as DCInside and even searched for keywords like getting a sentence reduced based on mental illness,” the judge said.

“It appears that the defendant kept in mind the possibility of using his mental health history to reduce his sentence when planning his crime,” the judge added. “For that reason, we are not reducing the sentence based on mental illness.”

The family of the two women who were killed by the car driven by Choi before he rushed into AK Plaza in Bundang, Gyeonggi, and attacked others with a knife, expressed anger at the court's decision.

The father of 20-year-old Kim Hye-bin, who was carrying the jacket his daughter used to wear at the court, said he couldn't understand the court's ruling.

He claimed that the court guaranteed the murderer would live out his life when his daughter's life had been stolen.

“Why don’t they just remove the death penalty from the law,” the father said.

The husband of another victim, 65-year-old Lee Hee-nam, said that the court had killed his wife a second time while the murderer now gets to live.

“My wife died on our neighborhood sidewalk that she had walked every day for the past 30 years,” the husband said. “I strongly resent the world.”

Choi’s father apologized to the families and expressed regret for not taking more assertive action in treating his son.

“When he was younger, we forced him to get treatment [for his mental health],” the father said. “But when he became an adult, we couldn’t.”

On Aug. 3, Choi drove up to AK Plaza, ran into the mall attached to Seohyeon Station with a knife, and injured a total of 14 people.

Choi is the second person to be sentenced to life in prison this week for a random public attack.

Cho Sun, a 34-year-old, attacked four people near Sillim Station in July last year, resulting in the death of a 22-year-old man from multiple stab wounds.

With two public random attacks occurring in less than two weeks, concerns about public safety soared, leading to an increase in the sales of personal protection items.

BY LEE HO-JEONG [lee.hojeong@joongang.co.kr]