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(1)40-year-old who threatened convenience store employee with deadly weapon sentenced to life in prison…judge tells him to “get married soon”
(2)Entered May 14, 2024, 12:23 p.m. Edited May 14, 2024, 12:24 p.m. Article
(3)Seungnam Kang
(4)Gaga BE
(5)6 months in prison for first offense → 5 months in prison for second offense
(6)Prosecutors accused of “writing indictments like cross-stitch”

(1)(Jeju=News1) By Seungnam Kang = A 40-year-old man who was jailed in the first trial for threatening a convenience store employee with a weapon and vandalizing property has had his sentence reduced on appeal.
(2)On the 14th, the Jeju District Court’s First Criminal Division (Chief Judge Oh Chang-hoon) held an appellate sentencing hearing for A, who was sentenced to six months in prison in the first trial on charges of special intimidation and other charges, and was detained in court.
(3)The Appeals Chamber stated that “the defendant’s crimes do not warrant a reduction in the original sentence at all,” but that “in light of some changes in the facts of the case and the fact that his girlfriend, who had promised to marry him, submitted a petition, we are reducing the sentence so that he can get married sooner.”
(4)The Appeals Chamber reviewed the closed-circuit (CC) TV in the convenience store at the time of the crime and found some discrepancies in the prosecution’s case, and changed the indictment ex officio.
(5)The Appeal Tribunal explained that Mr. A did not appear to have threatened the employee with the knife as if he was going to swing it, but merely reached out to pick it up.
(6)Also, the statement “picked up a plastic umbrella and swung it” is not “swinging” but “pointing”.
(7)”There is a difference between swinging (a plastic umbrella) and pointing it,” the appeals court said, adding that “an indictment must be written with care and thought, letter by letter, like a cross-stitch.”
(8)Earlier, A was sentenced to six months in prison at the first sentencing hearing held on March 22 at the Jeju District Court.
(9)At the first trial, Mr. A requested a lighter sentence because he was about to marry his girlfriend, but the first trial court sentenced him to imprisonment because he committed the offense during a period of absconding and had too many criminal convictions. The fact that he had reached an amicable settlement with the victim was also taken into account as a mitigating factor.
(10)Mr. A is known to have more than 30 criminal convictions, including multiple violent convictions and prison sentences.