The Kaohsiung District Court sentenced a man to death for killing a retired teacher with an iron mallet in Kaohsiung last year.
The man, Liu Chih-ming (劉志明), 38, was given the death sentence earlier this week.
The ruling can be appealed.
Prosecutors said Liu rode his motorcycle around the streets of Zuoying District (左營) in Kaohsiung in December last year to look for his ex-girlfriend, who broke up with him the previous month. He stopped by Lotus Pond, drank a bottle of Kaoliang and headed to a local temple.
Seeing a woman — a retired teacher surnamed Chen (陳) — open the driver-side door to her car after buying groceries at the market, Liu thought of hijacking her car so he could look for his ex-girlfriend. He forced his way into the car and struck Chen in the head with an iron mallet, which incapacitated her, prosecutors said.
He then pushed her into the passenger seat and attempted to drive the car away, but the vehicle’s gear shift was locked, they said.
He demanded that Chen, who was still conscious, unlock the gear shift. When she did not respond, he struck her repeatedly in the head, prosecutors said.
An autopsy showed that Chen was struck 13 times in the head.
Liu stole NT$2,000 from Chen’s purse, wiped the bloodstains from the car and fled from the crime scene on his motorcycle. He hid for five days before he was apprehended by police, prosecutors said.
Liu was found guilty of robbery, murder and other offenses. The court statement said that Liu killed Chen in a cruel manner, then tried to conceal his crime by destroying evidence and hiding from the law.
“The judge concurs with prosecutors in seeking the death penalty for Liu, because of the cruelty of the crime, and little likelihood of him making amends and reintegrating into society,” the ruling said.
“Giving a life term or other prison terms in this case would not reflect the severity of the crime, and would fail to uphold justice and fairness in society,” it said.
The first of 10 new high-capacity trains purchased from South Korea’s Hyundai Rotem arrived at the Port of Taipei yesterday to meet the demands of an expanding metro network, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. The train completed a three-day, 1,200km voyage from the Port of Masan in South Korea, the company said. Costing NT$590 million (US$18.79 million) each, the new six-carriage trains feature a redesigned interior based on "human-centric" transportation concepts, TRTC said. The design utilizes continuous longitudinal seating to widen the aisles and optimize passenger flow, while also upgrading passenger information displays and driving control systems for a more comfortable
Taiwan's first indigenous defense submarine, the SS-711 Hai Kun (海鯤, or Narwhal), departed for its 13th sea trial at 7am today, marking its seventh submerged test, with delivery to the navy scheduled for July. The outing also marked its first sea deployment since President William Lai (賴清德) boarded the submarine for an inspection on March 19, drawing a crowd of military enthusiasts who gathered to show support. The submarine this morning departed port accompanied by CSBC Corp’s Endeavor Manta (奮進魔鬼魚號) uncrewed surface vessel and a navy M109 assault boat. Amid public interest in key milestones such as torpedo-launching operations and overnight submerged trials,
Quarantine awareness posters at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport have gone viral for their use of wordplay. Issued by the airport branch of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency, the posters feature sniffer dogs making a range of facial expressions, paired with advisory messages built around homophones. “We update the messages for holidays and campaign needs, periodically refreshing materials to attract people’s attention,” quarantine officials said. “The aim is to use the dogs’ appeal to draw focus to quarantine regulations.” A Japanese traveler visiting Taiwan has posted a photo on X of a poster showing a quarantine dog with a
SECURITY RISK: A university student sent a general alarm signal to THSRC’s control center on April 5, causing four operating trains to temporarily halt services The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday pledged to submit a report on ways to harden the communication security of railway systems after a university student hacked into Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp’s (THSRC) radio communications system and disrupted operations of four high-speed rail trains last month. Investigation by the police and prosecutors found that the university student and radio enthusiast, surnamed Lin (林), first used a software-defined radio (SDR) filter to analyze THSRC signals, downloaded the data to a computer, cracked the parameters and then programmed the codes into his radio devices. Lin then sent a general alarm signal to
RSS