The scene of the murder of a newlywed couple in Samcheok in 1999. /KBS
There is a death row inmate who wants the death penalty to be abolished. After hearing the news that the third death penalty constitutional appeal hearing was underway, he was named as an assistant participant in the case in 2021. The state should not infringe on one’s right to life. The name of this death row inmate is Jeong Hyeong-gu. He is the one who opened fire on a newlywed couple with a shotgun just because he was in a bad mood. He was sentenced to death in July 2000 on charges of murder, attempted murder, and theft, and has been in prison for 23 years.
What did this death row inmate who shouts that I have the right to live do that day?
January 19, 1999, 4:10 PM. Munuijae hill road in Sangma-eup-ri, Nogok-myeon, Samcheok-si, Gangwon-do. A black Grandeur was driving on a dirt road. The license plate is ‘Jeonbuk 29-ga 9819’. It was a vehicle from Jeonju. A newlywed couple, Mr. Kim (28) and his mother-in-law (27), were riding in this luxury sedan. The two were in a common-law marriage and had daughters aged 7 and 2.
Mr. Kim, who worked as a taxi driver in Jeonju, postponed his wedding due to difficult circumstances and got married seven years later. On this day, two days after the ceremony, we belatedly departed for our honeymoon in Gangwon-do. His wife’s maternal uncle lived in Samcheok. Media articles at the time show that the poor couple rented a Grandeur to make the trip fun. She was also wearing a beautiful hanbok to say hello to the elders of her family.
Mr. Jang, who entered downtown Samcheok around 3 p.m. that day, called his uncle’s house, saying, “I will come see you soon.”
An hour later, the two people were found dead on a mountain path. There were dozens of bullets lodged in his body, and his hanbok was stained with blood. The culprit was Jeong Hyeong-gu (36 years old at the time), the Accent passenger who was driving right in front of him.
In January 1999, Jeong Hyeong-gu, who was arrested on charges of murdering a newlywed couple with a shotgun and attempting to kill a witness in Samcheok, Gangwon-do, in January 1999, and Han Jun-hee, who aided and abetted the crime, were arrested by the police. / KBS
That day, Jeong Hyeong-gu went pheasant hunting in his hometown, Gangwon-do, to soothe his depression due to business failure. He said he had a legally registered shotgun. Han Jun-hee (33 years old at the time), who worked as an employee when he ran the ‘Paldogangsan’ bar in Suwon in the past, accompanied him on the hunt. These two were on their way to the East Sea after finishing hunting.
Han Jun-hee, holding the steering wheel, drove slowly down the dirt road. Then, Mr. Kim, who was chasing after, overtook the accent. Dust flew and Jeong Hyeong-gu became enraged for a moment. He thought that a young newlywed couple in a Grandeur was ignoring him for driving a small car because he had failed in business. Han Jun-hee and Jeong Hyeong-gu opened the window and overtook the Grandeur, swearing harshly at the Kim couple and pointing at them. Kim followed suit with her swear words, again putting her accent to shame. The overtaking competition between Grandeur and Accent on an unpaved hill road lasted for 5 minutes at a distance of about 1 km.
Mr. and Mrs. Kim got it wrong. Han Jun-hee, who was behind the wheel, had five criminal convictions for theft, and Jeong Hyeong-gu, who sat in the passenger seat, had six criminal convictions, including robbery and rape. There was a loaded shotgun in the car where these ex-convicts were riding.
“Hey, stop the car.” At Jeong Hyeong-gu’s words, Han Jun-hee stopped the car. Hyeong-gu Jeong picked up his gun, stretched out his upper body out the passenger window, aimed at the back of the neck of the Grandeur driver running about 3 meters ahead, and pulled the trigger.
‘Bang, bang, bang’ three gunshots rang out and the Grandeur stopped.
The gun that Jeong Hyeong-gu shot was a 12-caliber Santan Foreign Gun made by Benelli, Italy. A shotgun is a firearm that increases accuracy by firing multiple bullets so that they scatter.
The shotgun and bullets used by Jeong Hyeong-gu in the crime./KBS
Hyeonggu Jeong aimed at people instead of pheasants. The bullet flew and hit Kim in the back of the head. Jeong Hyeong-gu got off the accent holding a gun. He shouted at Mr. Jang, who was trembling in fear in the car, to come out and fired two shots from the shotgun into the Grandeur’s windshield and the floor of the passenger seat. Han Jun-hee helped. She broke the driver’s window with a rock and pulled out Ms. Kim, who was losing consciousness, and Mr. Jang next to her.
The wife, Mr. Jang, cried out to save her husband, who was in a coma. “Please take her husband to the hospital,” she begged to Jeong Hyeong-gu, who had just shot her husband and was still pointing his gun at her at that moment.
It was then. A car passed by on a deserted road. It was the car of Mr. A, who was in charge of supervision at a nearby road construction site. He was the only witness who saw Jeong Hyeong-gu’s crime.
Jeong Hyeong-gu decided to kill both Mr. A and Mr. Jang. He fired four shotgun shots at Mr. A’s car. One of the shots grazed the back of Mr. A’s head. Ms. A fled the scene by pressing her accelerator pedal, bleeding, and she barely managed to save her life. Mr. A suffered multiple fragmentary scalp injuries 2 weeks after displacement. He testified as follows in a witness interview. “As I was passing the scene, a shotgun was pointed at me. “It went away in a flash, and immediately a light started flashing behind me.”
Was it because Jang was still alive? Jeong Hyeong-gu and Han Jun-hee did not chase after Mr. A. And Jeong Hyeong-gu put a shotgun to the back of the dying Kim’s head in front of Jang and shot him dead.
“You bastards, kill me too” Jang, who saw her husband being murdered, was so angry that she rushed at Jeong Hyeong-gu. Jeong Hyeong-gu pushed Ms. Jang and shot the woman once in the abdomen as she tried to get back up. Mr. Jang collapsed. In the meantime, Jeong Hyeong-gu fired another shot at her, aiming at Jang’s chin. Ms. Kim’s skull was ruptured, and about 20 bullet marks were found in Ms. Jang’s body. The dream of newlyweds who had waited seven years was destroyed by Jeong Hyeong-gu’s gun.
Jeong Hyeong-gu dreamed of concealing the crime. To make it look like a robbery, he took out an Olympus camera, a travel bag containing women’s rouge, a suit jacket, and a wallet from the Grandeur. He took 800,000 won in cash and threw the rest of the items in a nearby forest.
Witness A immediately reported the incident to the police, and a checkpoint was set up around the crime scene. However, Jeong Hyeong-gu and Han Jun-hee escaped the checkpoint leisurely. Jeong Hyeong-gu casually left the shotgun used in the crime back at the police station and wandered around the Donghae area. As the initial investigation was confused, the case fell into mystery. Meanwhile, Jeong Hyeong-gu established ‘Seonwoo General Trading’, which wholesaled daily necessities in Suwon. He hired 7 to 8 employees and acted as the boss in a flashy manner.
In July 1999, six months after the incident, a tip came to the Gyeonggi Provincial Police Agency. The content was, ‘The culprit of the Samcheok newlywed couple murder case is hiding in Suwon and Ansan area.’ It is said that Han Jun-hee spilled this information while drinking with an acquaintance. After conducting an investigation, the police caught Han Jun-hee in front of a hotel in Ingye-dong, Suwon City at around 1:30 a.m. on July 6, and arrested Jeong Hyeong-gu, who was sleeping inside the hotel, five hours later at around 6 a.m.
News report on the murder of a newlywed couple in Samcheok in January 1999. /MBC
Jeong Hyeong-gu and Han Jun-hee confessed to their crimes. Jeong Hyeong-gu made this statement to the investigative agency. “I was momentarily angry because Mr. Kim’s car overtook me on a bad road.” Jeong Hyeong-gu said that he had driven a foreign car when his business was doing well, and that he was in a mentally difficult state at the time of the crime because he was moving around Suwon, Daejeon, and Gangwon-do due to the bankruptcy of his business. It is claimed that he is mentally and physically weak.
That winter, the Gangneung branch court of the Chuncheon District Court sentenced Hyeong-gu Jeong to death on charges of murder, attempted murder, and theft. Han Jun-hee was sentenced to five years in prison on charges of aiding and abetting murder and attempted murder.
The first trial court ruled as follows. “There is absolutely nothing to consider as a motive for the crime, such as firing a gun at people and shooting the victims to death to avoid leaving evidence just because they were overtaken by a large car,” he said. At the same time, “Considering the defendant’s tendency to disregard life and the body, we have no choice but to choose a method of permanently isolating the defendant from society in order to protect this society.”
When the death sentence was handed down, Jeong Hyeong-gu said, “I have children. He is said to have begged the judge, saying, “Please extend my life.” On July 28, 2002, the Supreme Court confirmed the sentences for Jeong Hyeong-gu and Han Jun-hee.
Two years later, in 2002, the 2nd Civil Affairs Division of the Jeonju District Court ruled that in a lawsuit seeking damages filed by Mr. Kim and his wife’s two children against Jeong Hyeong-gu and Han Jun-hee, a total of 200 million won, 100 million won each, should be paid to the plaintiffs. However, Jeong Hyeong-gu is not paying this because he does not have money.
The Grandeur vehicle in which the Samcheok newlyweds were killed by Jeong Hyeong-gu’s shotgun / MBC
Jeong Hyeong-gu has been on death row without execution for 23 years. Usually, death row inmates spend their days engaging in religious activities. It is said that Jeong Hyeong-gu, who was serving time at Daegu Prison, has been atonement by preaching the gospel to inmates. He was transferred to the Seoul Detention Center along with Yoo Young-cheol in September of this year.
Last year, Jeong Hyeong-gu revealed to the media why he participated as an assistant participant in the petition for the unconstitutionality of the death penalty. He said, “I thought it was a useless trash life, but when I came to know Jesus, I thought it might be valuable to me too.” He said to Mr. and Mrs. Kim’s two remaining daughters, who are now well over 30, that he was “sorry beyond words.”
Even if the Constitutional Court decides that the death penalty is unconstitutional, Jeong Hyeong-gu cannot return to society because he is not subject to a retrial. Jeong Hyeong-gu also knows this. “If given the opportunity, I would like to preach the gospel and live an exemplary life inside prison.” This is what Jeong Hyeong-gu told the media. What are the surviving family members thinking?
2023-12-23 20:54:27
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