Man Beaten to Death at Wine Club Meeting

A man in his 40s, who beat a fellow wine club member to death after meeting him for the first time has been sentenced to prison.

The Seoul Eastern District Court’s Criminal Division 11 (Chief Judge Byung-chul Kim) announced on the 30th that it had sentenced a Man to eight years in prison on charges of fatal assault.

The Man was charged with causing the death of a member of the wine club which he was associated with at the time, by hitting him in the face at a hotel in Gwangjin-gu, Seoul, around 3 a.m. on July 16th last year.

News1 and Money Today reported the conversation between the two men at the time of the incident on the same day.

According to the reports, the two men who had first met at a wine club went to a hotel room to drink more wine after the meeting.

At the time of the incident, when the victim tried to order champagne through room service, the beater stopped him, to which the victim responded, “How much could the champagne possibly cost? I’ll buy it.” He made the beater who was drunk at that moment upset, punched the victim in the face saying, “So you have a lot of money? I’ve learned more than you,” and “You have so much money? If you’re older, you should pay.”

The hotel’s security staff intervened in their fight, but the two men continued to brawl in the hallway outside their room. The victim hit his head hard on the floor and could not get up after being hit in the jaw and falling.

Immediately after the incident, he was transferred to a hospital while conscious and underwent surgery for a brain hemorrhage, but ended up dying. The cause of death was brainstem paralysis due to traumatic subdural hemorrhage.

The beater turned himself into the police after hearing from another member that the victim had died. While he admitted to the assault, he claimed, “I was drunk and couldn’t remember properly. The victim did not die because of the assault.”

The prosecution sought a 12-year prison term for the man on charges of fatal assault, arguing that he did not take any action even after seeing the victim hit his head when he fell.

The court stated, “It is clear that a fight broke out when the beater hit with his fist,” and “Even if the victim made remarks that seemed to flaunt his wealth and belittle him, the crime couldn’t be justified. The victim’s family is calling for severe punishment, and the defendant has not made any effort to recover the damage to the victim’s family,” sentencing him to eight years in prison.

the beater asked the court to take into account his confession. However, the court did not accept this stating, “He voluntarily appeared at the police station but it appears that he partially denied the crime during the investigation.”

By. Hee Jung Yoon