High Court officials and police investigators yesterday brought four defendants and a key witness to a riverside park in New Taipei City’s Yonghe District (永和) to re-enact the events leading to the murder of a Canadian citizen in 2018.
The outing was part of an appeal by the three Americans and a Taiwanese-Canadian who had been convicted and sentenced in February for the murder of Sanjay Ryan Ramgahan.
Israeli-American Oren Mayer was sentenced to life in prison, while American Ewart Bent was given 12 years and six months for killing Ramgahan, and dismembering and abandoning his body on Aug. 21, 2018.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
Mayer and Bent were in handcuffs and leg shackles as police escorted them to the site, where they were provided English-speaking translators.
High Court Judge Tseng Te-shui (曾德水), the presiding judge in the appeal, was also present, conducting his own investigation and a review compiled by prosecutors.
Tseng said that he needed to clarify conflicting accounts from the trial hearing regarding the timing and exact locations of events as described by the defendants.
Also present were American Jason Hobbie, who was sentenced to 18 months in prison for aiding and abetting the murder, and Taiwanese-Canadian Wu Hsuan (吳宣), who received a six-month jail term, which can be commuted to a fine, also for aiding and abetting.
Hobbie, arrested and detained in October 2018, has served his prison term and was released.
A key witness in the case, a man in his 30s surnamed Chang (張), was also at the on-site review.
He told investigators that he was fishing on the bank of the Sindian River (新店溪) near the area on the night of the incident.
Chang told investigators that he had heard some voices, then later what sounded like large items being dropped into the river on the night of the incident, but did not know what had happened, as it was dark.
He saw two men walking back and forth on the riverbank terraces, who he later was able to identify as the suspects from photographs, he said.
“After reading the news about the murder case the next day, I went to the Yonghe police to report what I had heard and seen,” Chang said.
Chang said that he is a local resident and works at a pet store, and often fished at night at the park.
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