Appeals court hears Itaewon murder case

An appeals court on Monday began to hear a case involving a Korean-American sentenced to 20 years in prison after being found guilty of killing a South Korean college student nearly two decades ago.

Arthur John Patterson, 37, denied his involvement in what is known as the “Itaewon murder case,” saying that he was only a witness of an “unexpected” murder. His lawyer accused Edward Lee, 37, of killing Cho, citing the blood stains on his shirts. 

“I was young and stupid. My first reaction was to get out of the place. I was scared and I was not thinking,” he said, when asked why he ran away and attempted to get rid of the knife without reporting it to the police after the murder. “I should have gone to the authorities, but he was my friend. It was not my idea to destroy the evidence.”

A lower court sentenced Patterson to 20 years in jail -- the maximum term for suspects aged 18 or younger at the time of murder -- in January for stabbing Cho to death in April 1997 at a Burger King outlet in Itaewon, an area of Seoul commonly frequented by expats.

The court found Lee guilty of inciting Patterson to kill the victim. It recognized Lee as an accomplice, but did not convict him according to Korea’s double jeopardy rule. The rule bars an accused from standing trial over the same charge for a second time, even if new evidence comes to light.

In 1998, Prosecutors indicted only Lee, who was then 17 years old, for murdering Cho. He was sentenced to life imprisonment, but was later cleared of the charge for lack of evidence. Patterson, who was also 17 years old, was handed down an 18-month jail term on charges of eliminating evidence and possessing a dangerous weapon. He was freed after serving a year in jail in an annual amnesty. As prosecutors failed to renew his travel ban, he returned to the U.S. in 1999.

In the hearing, Patterson, who appeared in a sky-blue prisoner uniform at the Seoul High court, actively defended himself, saying that the trial has been “unfair” for him.

“My concern is a fair trial for me. If I cannot reach anybody and ask what happened 20 years later. It is not fair. It is not right,” Patterson said in front of some 60 spectators including the victim Cho’s mother and Lee’s father. “Why is it that my side is not allowed to summon (our key witness) Park Jae-oh but prosecutors can bring in anyone they want?

The remarks came after the judge dismissed Patterson’s request to call in Park Jae-oh, a former prosecutor who investigated the murder case in 1997, as a new witness.

“The prosecutor did not witness or experience the crime, but only investigated it. It is not appropriate to ask him about his judgements and personal opinions,” the judge Yoon Joon said. “He will not help find the truth. Please respect the court’s decision.”

But the court accepted Patterson’s call to bring in his former friends and ex-girlfriend from the United States as witnesses in the upcoming hearings.

The victim, Patterson and Lee were the only three people who were at the crime scene. But neither Patterson nor Lee were found guilty of the murder at the time, leaving the case unresolved for almost two decades.

The prosecution opened a fresh investigation into the murder in 2009, charging Patterson as the prime suspect of the murder. The U.S. citizen was arrested in Los Angeles in 2011 and was extradited to Korea last September.

By Ock Hyun-ju (laeticia.ock@heraldcorp.com)