The Taiwan High Court yesterday handed down multiple-year jail sentences to two men found guilty of murdering a 12-year-old boy in Taoyuan last year.
The court’s ruling said the two men, surnamed Wang (王), 20, and Chiang (江), 22, used “extremely cruel” methods to beat the boy and then kill him by throwing him off the roof of a building.
The court gave a 14-year jail sentence to Wang and an eight-year jail sentence to Chiang. Yesterday’s ruling can still be appealed.
Chiang was handed a lighter sentence because he has “mild mental retardation,” a disability which he had registered with the local government, and also because his parents agreed to give the boy’s family NT$2 million (US$60,371) in compensation to settle the case, the ruling said.
The crime also involved three underage defendants, and the judicial hearing on their case is ongoing at the juvenile court of the Taoyuan District Court.
According to prosecutors, the 12-year-old boy, surnamed Hsu (許), became friends with the two men, along with a 14-year-old girl who was Wang’s girlfriend, as they lived around the same neighborhood in Taoyuan.
On the afternoon of March 30 last year, Hsu and the group gathered at an Internet cafe and a squabble broke out when Hsu tried to borrow a smartphone to play games, but Wang refused, prosecutors said.
The group of five decided to “teach the boy a lesson” with a beating, prosecutors said.
According to the police investigation, the group led Hsu to another boy’s house, where they took him to the top floor of the building.
Prosecutors said Chiang took off his jacket and wrapped it around Hsu’s head before hitting and strangling him.
They said Wang then struck Hsu with a metal rod to knock him unconscious.
After discovering Hsu was still alive and in an effort to prevent him from filing a police report, Wang and Chiang decided to kill him, prosecutors said.
They said Wang and Chiang carried Hsu to the roof and threw him off the building.
Afterward, the two men met up with Wang’s 14-year-old girlfriend and colluded on their version of the events, prosecutors said.
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