“Gangbuk motel serial killings” suspect Kim So-young. Photo courtesy of the Seoul Northern District Prosecutors’ Office
A 20-year-old woman sentenced to life in prison for giving men drug-laced drinks that killed two and injured four has appealed the verdict.
Kim So-young filed the appeal on the 28th with the 14th criminal division of the Seoul Northern District Court, presided over by Chief Judge Oh Byung-hee, legal sources said on the 31st. The filing came one day after the life sentence was handed down.
The court sentenced Kim to life in prison on the 27th on charges of murder, aggravated assault and violating the Narcotics Control Act. It also ordered her to wear an electronic tracking device for 30 years. Prosecutors had sought the death penalty at the final hearing on the 18th.
Kim denied the murder charge during the trial. But the court found that she gradually came to recognize the possibility of death, citing her repeated offenses and her queries to ChatGPT about the dangers of the drugs. The court concluded she had willful negligence amounting to intent to kill, saying she administered the drugs to the victims despite fully foreseeing that they could die.
Kim was indicted and detained in March this year on charges of handing drinks laced with benzodiazepine drugs to three men in their 20s, killing two and leaving one unconscious. Prosecutors later filed additional charges of aggravated assault and violating the Narcotics Control Act after confirming that Kim had committed the same crime against three other men.