SIBU: The High Court also sentenced two men to death after they were found guilty of murdering an elderly woman during a robbery bid at Pulau Kerto five years ago.
Jeeji Ting Kim Leong and Syahadan Othman were charged with common intention of committing murder by causing the death of Ting Poh Sing, 58, at an unnumbered house in Pulau Kerto between 1am and 7.10pm on June 27, 2018.
The offence punishable under Section 302 of the Penal Code and read together with section 34 of the same code, provides for the mandatory death sentence upon conviction.
In delivering his judgement, Justice Datuk Christopher Chin Soo Yin ruled that after considering the evidence as a whole and the sworn evidence of Ting and the unsworn evidence of Syahadan in their defence, he was satisfied that the prosecution had proven its case against the two accused under section 300(c) of the penal Code beyond reasonable doubt.
Accordingly he found the two accused guilty as charged.
Justice Chin said he took serious consideration of the pleas in mitigation and to the remarks by the DPP (Deputy Public Prosecutor).
He said the victim was an elderly, defenceless and helpless lady living alone save for another elderly and senile woman.
“The motive was simple, it was to relieve the victim of her cash so that you (accused) could finance your drug addiction. This was not a random robbery. You had frequented the same house for drug activities. The attack on the victim was planned and premeditated.
“The injuries on the deceased showed that she was also beaten to the extent that her ribs were broken. The murder was not accidental. The victim’s hands and legs were bound and in that forced position she was strangled to death. It wasn’t accidental death or death caused by negligence.
“The recent amendments to the law giving this Court the discretion as to whether to impose the death sentence allows you to seek the mercy and discretion of this Court to substitute death sentence for a custodial sentence and whipping.
“What about the mercy to the victim, what about the public’s interest and abhorrence to this violent cold blooded and deadly act linked to your drug addiction? What about the justice to the victim’s family who have to live with the memory of their family member’s violent and painful death?
“Seen in the light of your premeditated brutality to the victim I have no alternative but to pass the sentence of death on both of you in accordance with section 302 of the Penal Code. In accordance with section 277 of the Criminal Procedure Code you will be taken to a place and at a time to be determined later where you will hanged by the neck until you are dead,” he concluded.
DPP Mark Kenneth Netto prosecuted while the accused were represented by assigned counsels, Yap Hoi Liong and Ben Lau Le Bin.
