Man receives life sentence for murder of five family members

A man surnamed Lee received a life sentence Wednesday for killing five family members in Yongin, Gyeonggi, after the court rejected prosecutors’ request for the death penalty and ordered him to “beg the victims for forgiveness and atone.”

A man leaves the Yongin Dongbu Police Station in Yongin, Gyeonggi, on April 17 to attend a court hearing. [YONHAP]

A man surnamed Lee received a life sentence Wednesday for killing five family members in Yongin, Gyeonggi, after the court rejected prosecutors’ request for the death penalty and ordered him to “beg the victims for forgiveness and atone.”

The Suwon High Court sentenced Lee to life in prison for murder and violating the Narcotics Control Act, among other charges.

“The lower court misapplied the law when it assessed some of the seized evidence, and the defendant’s separate conviction for occupational breach of trust — which carried a one-year prison term — became final after the first ruling. Therefore, it did not factor into the lower court’s sentencing,” the appellate court said. "Even after taking that conviction into account, the sentence does not change, so we uphold a life term."

Prosecutors indicted Lee on charges stating that he drugged his parents, his wife and his two daughters with sleeping pills and killed them at his home in Yongin between 8 p.m. on April 14 and around midnight on April 15.

Investigators said Lee committed the murders after he pushed a private rental apartment construction and sales project in Gwangju and later built up debts worth billions of won. They said multiple people filed criminal complaints against him over the project.

“He planned the killings because he said he did not want to burden his family with the financial fallout from his business failure,” prosecutors said at closing arguments in the appeal trial in November. "The crime is extremely heinous."

The court sharply criticized Lee when it delivered the ruling.

A man leaves the Yongin Dongbu Police Station in Yongin, Gyeonggi, on April 17 to attend a court hearing. [NEWS1]

“The defendant killed the parents who gave birth to him and raised him, and he abandoned the most basic bonds,” the court said. "He killed the spouse who lived with him for life. Even animals give up their own lives to protect their young. Yet, the defendant killed his two daughters, who had grown into adults and were pursuing their dreams. He did not stop even when his wife and daughters resisted. The crime is too horrific to put into words.

"He appears to have killed them because he thought the surviving family members would suffer because of his debts, but we cannot accept his act, no matter how we try to see it from another perspective. What authority did he have to judge his family’s lives and happiness? A family is the most precious community that supports our society. His crime did not end with the destruction of one household. It damaged universal values that our society protects."

The court, however, took a cautious stance on the death penalty.

"We reviewed 15 cases in which courts have confirmed death sentences since 2004 and considered multiple sentencing factors," the court said. "Those cases involved especially brutal crimes that combined murder with other serious offenses such as robbery and rape, and they differ from this case.

"We recognize the need to punish the defendant severely. But we do not see clear special circumstances that make it reasonable to impose the death penalty."

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom. BY CHOI MO-RAN [paik.jihwan@joongang.co.kr]