SEOUL, Dec. 23 (Yonhap) -- A Seoul appellate court on Friday upheld a 20-year sentence for a medical doctor who killed his pregnant wife during a quarrel, rejecting his appeal to overturn an earlier conviction.
Upholding the lower court's ruling in September, the Seoul High Court found the 31-year-old doctor surnamed Baek guilty of strangling his nine-month-pregnant wife in January after they argued over his heavy computer gaming habit.
"Considering all the pieces of evidence and the circumstances, we found him guilty of killing his wife," presiding judge Lee Tae-jong said, adding "We dismissed his appeal as he has shown no remorse for his crime even after the conviction."
While the prosecution sought life imprisonment for Baek for his murder charges, the lower court sentenced him to 20 years behind bars, citing that his crime was unlikely to have been premeditated.
The rare case of murder by a doctor, which drew heavy media attention, required a group of forensic specialists to prove Baek responsible for the killing.
The doctor first reported his wife's death to the police himself, saying he found her lying dead over a bathtub in their apartment in Seoul after he returned home in the evening. Citing his medical career and knowledge, the doctor claimed his wife might have slipped in the bathroom and the extra weight from her pregnancy could have led to suffocation.
Police and forensic scientists, however, said her death was apparently caused by Baek strangling her, citing marks around her neck and internal bleeding from the strangulation.
A police investigation found the couple had a serious fight early in the morning of the day the woman was found dead. The fight, along with stress from a medical license test Baek took the previous day, led him to commit the crime. He left his home at sunrise for a nearby college library before returning home later in the day to report the death to the police.
<한글기사>
만삭아내 살해혐의 의사 항소심도 징역 20년
서울고법 형사6부(이태종 부장판사)는 23일 만 삭의 부인을 살해한 혐의(살인)로 구속기소된 의사 백모(31)씨에 대한 항소심에서 1심과 같이 징역 20년을 선고했다.
재판부는 "피해자와 피고인의 몸에 난 상처, 추정되는 사망 시각, 피고인의 당 일 행적 등 각종 증거와 정황을 고려하면 백씨가 사건 당일 오전 집을 떠나기 전에 피해자의 목을 졸라 살해한 혐의가 유죄로 인정된다"고 밝혔다.
이어 "유죄가 인정된 만큼 피고인이 범행을 인정하고 반성하는 모습을 보이지 않은 이상 1심과 정황상 달라진 점이 없어 피고인과 검찰의 항소를 모두 기각한다"고 덧붙였다.
백씨는 지난 1월 서울 마포구 도화동 자신의 집에서 만삭인 아내 박씨와 다투다 가 목을 졸라 숨지게 한 혐의(살인)로 기소돼 1심에서 징역 20년을 선고받았으며, 항소심에서 검찰은 무기징역을 구형했었다.
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