Choi, who killed his girlfriend, was it negligence or intentional?



On SBS 'I want to know' broadcast on the 11th, '300 Days and 19 Seconds - The Truth of the Death of a Jeju Open Car' was released.



On November 10, 2019, around 1 a.m., a great roar sounded in Hallim-eup, Jeju Island. The origin of the roar is a traffic accident. In this accident, the convertible car of Eun-ae and her boyfriend Choi, who traveled to Jeju Island to commemorate 300 days of dating in the accident, collided with a curb, a stone wall and a cultivator, and was severely damaged.



In the accident, Choi was in good condition enough to have a conversation with the police who came to the scene to deal with the accident.



Eun-ae underwent 10 major surgeries with broken shoulder blades and ribs, damage to her lungs, and major brain damage. Eunae survived as a vegetative person, but eventually passed away in August of last year. As a result of the police investigation, Choi's blood alcohol level at the time of the accident was 0.118%, which is the level of license revocation. An accident that was thought to be only a drunk driving accident. However, Eun-ae's family accused Choi of attempted murder, which turned into an accident rather than an accident.



Eun-ae's sister, Su-ae, found a recording file left on the day of the accident in her younger sister's cell phone. The recording was a conversation with Choi, who broke up with Eun-ae during the 300-day commemorative trip. And in the file recorded 19 seconds before the accident in question, Choi confirmed that Eun-ae was not wearing a seat belt and stepped on the accelerator pedal, which was a shock.



Suae thought that the accident was not a simple drunk driving car accident, but a murder case. The older sister thought Choi had intentional intentions to endanger her younger sister's life, so she sued Choi.



Also, in the last video that was taken before the incident on her brother's cell phone, Mr. Choi, who repeated the words "You have to turn left. Turn left," was awarded the award. I thought that this was not a coincidence, especially since the accident point was at a left-hand side.



And before the trip, Choi informed Eun-ae of the breakup, and Eun-ae persuaded her to reverse the breakup, which was repeated several times in their SNS conversation. However, they prepared a trip to Jeju Island to commemorate the 300th day, and in the process, Choi insisted on renting a Mustang, a convertible car despite Eunae's disapproval.



Eun-ae's older sister said that Choi's behavior after the accident was more absurd than anything else. Even though his loved one suffered a catastrophic accident due to his own accident, he did not look apologetic, but seemed very calm. Also, right after the incident, Choi went to Seoul to take a laptop from Eun-ae's house, and even changed the password for the door without her family's knowledge.



Choi also asked Eun-ae's friend to testify of her de facto relationship, saying that she would surely save Eun-ae. In response, the victim's side said, "I have 80 million won as a deposit for the house where the victim lives, and I think I decided that it would be beneficial to me when I was in a de facto relationship. It is doubtful that he may have judged."



At that time, the accident investigation officer at the rental car company said, "I remembered the accident as I was coming out of the pension and it made a bang when I hit the brake because the speed was fast." And Choi stated that both of them were wearing seat belts, but this was different from the results of the on-site investigation. It was clear that Eun-ae, who was in the passenger seat, was not wearing a seat belt.



Suae, who obtained the recording after the accident, requested the police to investigate further, but nothing changed. At that time, the police officer in charge of the case said, "It's strange, but that person didn't usually look for ways to kill or anything like that, and the police can send this only if there is an objective suspicion such as expensive insurance," he said. forwarded the case to And because the driver Choi did not pay the cost of damage to the convertible car, the paper rental car contractor Eun-ae's family was ordered to pay half of the damage.



Even after the family filed a complaint against Choi and dozens of friends submitted complaints, little progress was made in this case, which turned around after Eun-ae's death. Prosecutors charged Choi with murder. This was 1 year and 5 months after the incident. In response, Choi entrusted the case to a large law firm, claiming that there was no reason to kill Eun-ae, the girlfriend she was going to marry.



The production team tried to meet Choi in person and hear his position. However, he calmly declined the interview, saying, "I will talk about all the embarrassing things at the trial."



On August 9, the second hearing of the case was held. However, the positions of officials in charge of traffic accident analysis agencies were strongly divided. Police officials and Road Traffic Authority officials testified that it was not possible to judge intentionality, and the National Forensic Service testified to the effect that it was intentional.



Choi's lawyer said, "My girlfriend said she wanted to eat ramen, so she said that she couldn't kill someone because she suddenly didn't wear a seat belt while going to buy ramen. stated the position.



Also, as for the reason why Choi, who had gone on the first left-hand bend, went straight to the stone wall in the second left-bend section, he argued that it was only because it was dark at night that he could not find an object. Therefore, the production team tried to drive under the same conditions through an experiment. As a result, it was confirmed that a bright view was secured by the influence of the streetlight.



In addition, Choi claimed that he made efforts to prevent an accident by stepping on the brake and steering the steering wheel in the opposite direction before the collision. Choi submitted EDR data to support this.



However, the person in charge who directly analyzed the data said, "It is not possible to determine whether this data is an external factor or a driver factor."



And the production team looked more closely at the accident with traffic accident analysis experts. In particular, he set out to find the truth of the incident by reproducing the situation as it was at the time.



Regarding the fact that Choi applied the brake 0.5 seconds before the collision, the expert said, "In fact, you cannot brake or change the speed 0.5 seconds before the collision. In a way, it is meaningless braking." He also added that the act of steering his steering wheel was meaningless.



In response, the expert said, "Speeding cannot be ruled out intentionally. I think that speeding on Jeju Island's roads may have been a psychological thing that didn't know what to do."



Professor Lee Su-jeong said, "It seems that he made a conscious decision at that moment to focus on acceleration by stepping on the accelerator instead of advising that a man should wear a seat belt while hearing the seat belt warning sound." Choi's behavior was analyzed.



And an expert who analyzed the SNS conversation contents and recorded files of Choi and Eun-ae said that the possibility of an accidental crime caused by a momentary outrage could not be ruled out. In addition, the expert said, "I may not have thought that I had to deliberately prepare a convertible and blow this woman up to death, but at least at that moment, the car was in the open car and it was confirmed that the other party was not wearing a seat belt. If you do that, you can say that there is an unwritten intention in the murder."



He also raised his voice that it would be difficult to cover up the accident that caused Eun-ae to death, even if Choi was drunk and driving alone. 



(SBS Entertainment News Editor Kim Hyo-jeong)