Man sentenced to 12 years after killing caretaker

(Illustration by Park Ji-young/The Korea Herald)

The Seoul High Court has sentenced a Chinese national to 12 years in prison for killing his caretaker after falling into a schizoaffective delusion that she was trying to kill him.

According to legal sources on Tuesday, the court overturned a lower court ruling that had imposed a 15-year sentence and instead handed down a 12-year prison term for murder. The court also ordered the defendant to undergo compulsory psychiatric treatment and to wear an electronic tracking device for 10 years following his release.

The defendant stabbed the victim, a woman in her 70s, multiple times at his residence in December 2024, killing her. The victim, an acquaintance of the defendant’s mother, had been caring for him for about a week before the killing.

Before the attack, the defendant sent his mother a series of messages and made phone calls claiming, “I am God. You have to believe me,” and warning that the caretaker was going to kill him.

Investigators found that he was suffering from delusions that the victim intended to murder him and that police officers were surrounding his home.

The defendant had previously been involved in an attempted murder case in Japan in 2012, but was acquitted after mental impairment was cited.

In July, the lower court sentenced him to 15 years in prison, ordering psychiatric confinement and electronic monitoring for a decade.

While acknowledging that the defendant was suffering from schizoaffective disorder and had diminished capacity to judge his actions at the time of the crime, the court said he had not completely lost that ability, citing the brutality of the attack and the seriousness of the offense.

The appellate court accepted the defendant’s argument that the original sentence was excessive.

While noting that the crime involved a dangerous weapon and carried grave responsibility, the court said it took into account the rapid deterioration of his mental condition following a medical diagnosis before the offense, as well as requests for leniency from the victim’s family, in reducing the sentence.