Top court upholds life sentence in grisly Busan murder case
![Jung Yoo-jung, who killed a complete stranger last year, is escorted by police in Busan on June 2, 2023. [NEWS1]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2024/06/13/836042d3-3da7-4f39-b602-97ba3819755e.jpg)
Jung Yoo-jung, who killed a complete stranger last year, is escorted by police in Busan on June 2, 2023. [NEWS1]
The Supreme Court confirmed the lower courts' sentences, which ordered Jung to serve life in prison and wear a tracking device for 30 years. It also rejected Jung’s appeal for a lighter punishment.
Jung stabbed to death a woman she met through a tutoring brokerage app at the victim’s residence in Geumjeong District in Busan on May 26 of last year.
According to police, Jung pretended to be the mother of a high schooler on the app and disguised herself as a student when visiting the victim’s house on the day of the offense.
Jung told police she killed the victim "out of curiosity."
Justice Kim Sang-hwan validated the lower courts' rulings, saying that lifetime imprisonment was not "overly inappropriate.”
He said the top court also considered circumstantial factors such as the offender’s age, behavior, nearby environment and motive for the murder.
The prosecution believed that the murder was an expression of her rage, with Jung reportedly blaming society for her unhappy adolescence.
The police caught her a day after the murder, based on a report from a taxi driver who was suspicious of Jung’s disposal of a bloodstained suitcase near the Nakdong River.
In late November, the Busan District Court handed Jung a life sentence and ordered her to wear a tracking device for 30 years after finding her guilty of murder and mutilating and abandoning a corpse.
The prosecutors appealed to the Busan High Court, seeking the death penalty. Jung also appealed for a lighter sentence.
The appellate court upheld the initial sentence in late March, prompting Jung to appeal to the Supreme Court. The prosecution did not appeal after the High Court ruling.
The High Court ruled that the death penalty "should be executed only in very limited and exceptional cases,” raising the possibility of Jung correcting her behavior.
Jung scored high on the psychopathy test with a score of 28 out of 40. Normal people usually score 15 or below. In Korea, the investigative authorities consider people with scores of 25 or over as psychopaths.
Jung has submitted 60 statements with her apology since her trial began at the Busan District Court.
BY LEE SOO-JUNG [lee.soojung1@joongang.co.kr]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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