Businessman who killed wife's ex-lover spared the gallows, jailed for life
SINGAPORE — Businessman Chia Kee Chen was spared the gallows for killing his wife's ex-lover, after a High Court ruled on Friday (Aug 4) that it was not clear if he, or his accomplices, had dealt the fatal blows.
Prosecutors had pointed to the premeditation of the killing in arguing for the death penalty to be imposed on Chia, who was charged under a limb of the murder charge, giving the judge discretion to jail the 57-year-old for life instead. They have not indicated if they would appeal against the sentence.
Defence lawyers countered that the version of events from one of Chia's two accomplices — given to Indonesian authorities before he went on the run — should be considered with care since he had not been subjected to cross-examination. The murder weapon, believed to be a hammer, was never found.
On Friday, Justice Choo Han Teck found that there was a possibility that Chia did not inflict the fatal blows on his love rival Dexmon Chua Yizhi, who died from head injuries with nearly every bone from below his eyes to his lower jaw fractured.
During the trial, the court was told that Chia had recruited Febri Irwansyah Djatmiko, a 34-year-old Indonesian, and cleaning supervisor Chua Leong Aik, 67, to help him carry out his plot on Dec 28, 2013.
The trio caught Dexmon Chua, then a 37-year-old materials analyst, at a multi-storey car park near his Choa Chu Kang home, bundled him into a van, tied him up and assaulted him as they made their way towards Lim Chu Kang.
Chua Leong Aik backed out of the plan midway, while the other two men continued towards a military training area where they later dumped Dexmon Chua's body.
Chia was arrested three days later, on New Year's Eve.
Last month, Deputy Public Prosecutor Tan Wee Hsien charged that Chia "clearly bore ill-will" towards Dexmon Chua having been "made cuckold" by the latter. The murder was almost a year in the making, and one-and-a-half years after his wife Serene Goh, 51, and Dexmon Chua had ended their affair in May 2012, she said.
Defence lawyers Anand Nalachandran and Diana Ngiam argued that their client had not planned to kill Dexmon Chua before the abduction. What he had intended was to "teach (Dexmon Chua) a lesson" and to extract a thumbdrive containing compromising videos of his wife with Dexmon Chua, they said.
In particular, they urged the court to treat Febri's statement with "utmost caution" as it had not been subjected to cross-examination and scrutiny. There were "material inconsistencies" between statements given by Chia's two accomplices, Mr Nalachandran said.
Chia's testimony, which said that there was no planning or discussion of a killing prior to that particular day, should be preferred, said the lawyer.
Chua Leong Aik was sentenced to five years' jail for abduction and causing grievous hurt by dangerous means.
