The Supreme Court yesterday upheld a 12-year sentence for Chuang Yu-hsieng (莊育賢), who had been found guilty of strangling his girlfriend, surnamed Lee (李), at a motel in Taichung.
The verdict was the final ruling in the case.
Chuang had appealed the first ruling after a district court convicted him of manslaughter and sentenced him to 10 years and two months in prison.
The High Court in October last year then sentenced him to 12 years in prison.
In their ruling, the Supreme Court judges said that the sentence should be upheld because Chuang had not shown remorse for committing the crime, and he had not apologized to his girlfriend’s family, nor did he offer them financial compensation.
The couple had been living together and were reportedly planning to marry.
Chuang took Lee out on a car trip and they checked into a Taichung motel on July 18, 2018, investigators said.
The next morning they were seen arguing over breakfast.
Prosecutors said that Chuang at first denied the killing, saying that Lee had committed suicide.
After being presented with evidence, he later admitted to strangling Lee in a fit of anger, they said.
Minutes later, he found that she was still breathing, so he took a towel from the bathroom to strangle her to death, they cited him as saying.
Chuang dragged the body to the bathroom to clean it, then carried it to the car and drove along a highway between Taichung and Nantou County, looking for a place to dump it, but did not find a a suitable spot, investigators said.
Chuang checked into another motel later that night. The next day he crashed his car into a guard rail on Highway No. 6. Police arrived to find him in a nervous state.
He attempted to jump off the side of highway and kill himself, but police grabbed him first.
Police officers then discovered Lee’s body in the car’s trunk.
In another case, the Taipei District Court yesterday approved the detention of a Taipei City Motor Vehicles Office official surnamed Yuan (袁), after prosecutors began investigating him for corruption on Tuesday.
Yuan is accused of receiving bribes of NT$1.3 million (US$43,279) a year.
He reportedly colluded with businesses to enable drivers to pass the physical test for their drivers’ license, among other things.
Prosecutors have questioned six other people and carried out searches.
Yuan was detained along with businessman Lee Hung-chang (李宏章), while the other five were released on bail ranging from NT$100,000 to NT$250,000.
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