A man in his 30s who was charged with causing the death of his lover in a convertible car while drunk driving has been sentenced to four years in prison.
The first division of the Supreme Court (Presiding Judge Park Jeong-hwa) dismissed the appeal of Mr. A (35), who was charged with murder and drunk driving under the Road Traffic Act today (12th).
Mr. A was brought to trial on November 10, 2019 at around 1:00 am in Hallim-eup, Jeju-si, driving a convertible while intoxicated with alcohol, resulting in the death of his girlfriend, B, who was in the passenger seat.
At the time of the accident, Mr. A's blood alcohol level was 0.118%, the level of license revocation.
Mr. A confirms that Mr. B is not fastening his seat belt, and after she says "I'm not wearing a seat belt", she accelerates the car and crashes into a curb or something.
Mr. B was thrown out of her roofless convertible, seriously injured and unconscious, and died the following August.
In this case, the issue was whether A should be considered to have intentionally killed her B.
The prosecution charged Mr. A with murder based on the contents of the conversation between the two immediately before the accident, but the judge did not accept it, saying that there was insufficient evidence to prove intention.
The first trial judge found Mr. A guilty of drunk driving only and sentenced him to 1 year in prison and 2 years probation.
The second trial judge also judged that it was difficult to acknowledge the intentionality of the murder.
However, the preliminary prosecution added by the prosecution (dangerous driving under the Special Act) was considered guilty and the sentence was increased.