The Taichung branch of the High Court upheld a guilty verdict today in the second trial of a man convicted for forging documents and orchestrating a fake marriage to a high school student who died suspiciously on the same day, rejecting the man's appeal.
He is to serve one year and six months in prison and this ruling is final and cannot be appealed further.
Photo: Chang Jui-chen, Taipei Times
Hsia Chao-yuan (夏朝源) was found guilty in June last year by the Taichung District Court of forging documents and faking his marriage to an 18-year-old man surnamed Lai (賴) to seize Lai’s NT$500 million (US$15.28 million) inheritance.
On May 4, 2023, Lai fell to his death from a 10th-floor residence where Hsia lived just an hour after the two were legally married.
The two men allegedly had no relationship prior to the marriage, with Hsia’s father helping Lai’s father organize property agreements to leave behind for his son, the court said.
After Lai’s father died, there was a property dispute between his mother and grandmother, leading to Hsia convincing the teenager that a marriage would secure his inheritance, the court found.
In the first trial last June, the court said there was no evidence of a romantic relationship between the two men, and no indication of Lai being interested in same-sex partners, citing statements from people who knew him.
Lai also appeared to be unhappy on his wedding day, the court found, based on testimony from Lai’s tutor and classmates.
During the initial trial, Hsia questioned whether his same-sex marriage required approval from the judge and prosecutor, adding that public opinion and scrutiny led to his guilty verdict.
Despite Hsia’s appeals before the High Court, like crying in court and claiming that he was also a victim, the judge found that Hsia’s arguments lacked credibility and were not sufficient to overturn the original ruling.
Despite Lai’s suspicious death, prosecutors did not find sufficient evidence to charge Hsia with murder, although the court did say that Hsia “exhibited a high degree of malicious intent and a severe deviation from legal norms.”
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