The Supreme Court on Tuesday turned down the final appeal of a migrant worker from Vietnam who had received a six-year prison sentence from a lower court for attempting to murder a Taiwanese woman in New Taipei City in late 2019.
The Vietnamese man, surnamed Nguyen, is to be deported after serving the sentence in Taiwan.
Nguyen was first convicted of attempted murder and sentenced to eight years in jail by the Keelung District Court for throwing a 79-year-old woman surnamed Tu (杜) off the Fenglin Bridge (楓林橋) in New Taipei City’s Rueifang District (瑞芳) late on Dec. 24, 2019, after hitting her with his motorbike.
The verdict was appealed to the High Court, which reduced his jail term to six years based on a NT$250,000 settlement between Nguyen and the victim’s family, and because he pled guilty to attempted murder.
The High Court disagreed with the district court’s ruling that Nguyen acted with direct intent to engage in a wrongful act, ruling instead that he acted with indeterminate intent, leading to the reduced sentence.
Nguyen again appealed the verdict, which was rejected by the Supreme Court on Dec. 30 last year.
The Supreme Court’s final ruling said that Nguyen attempted to dodge his responsibility by throwing Tu off the bridge, after hitting her with his motorbike and seeing that she was unconscious.
It said that as Nguyen was picking Tu up, a bus driver surnamed Wang (汪) stopped, exited the bus and tried to stop him, yelling: “Stop” and “Don’t do it.”
However, Nguyen still pushed Tu off the bridge and drove off, it added.
Tu’s fall was stopped by a tree and she survived, although she sustained multiple fractures in both legs and abrasions all over her body, the decision said.
Police later detained Nguyen because Wang had provided them with his license plate number, the ruling added.
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