The Taichung District Prosecutors’ Office today said it decided not to press murder charges against a man convicted of faking a marriage with a high-school student who died in 2023 under suspicious circumstances, citing insufficient evidence.
The man, surnamed Hsia (夏), was found guilty in June last year by the Taichung District Court of forging documents and faking his marriage to an 18-year-old man surnamed Lai (賴) to seize Lai’s NT$500 million (US$15.59 million) inheritance.
On May 4, 2023, Lai was found dead following a fall from Hsia’s 10th-floor apartment building just two hours after the two legally registered their marriage.
Photo: Chang Jui-chen, Taipei Times
The two men allegedly had no relationship prior to the marriage, with Hsia’s father helping Lai’s father organize property agreements to leave behind for his son, the Taichung branch of the High Court said in a second trial in January.
The court upheld a ruling that Hsia must serve 18 months in prison for forging documents that caused a “civil servant to make a false entry in public records.”
Hsia started serving his sentence in February.
Despite the suspicious circumstances around Lai’s death, prosecutors said they did not find sufficient evidence to charge Hsia with murder.
However, the court did say that Hsia “exhibited a high degree of malicious intent and a severe deviation from legal norms.”
Lai’s mother filed a petition to review the case.
The Taichung branch of High Prosecutors’ Office sent the case back to the Taichung District Prosecutors’ Office for further investigation.
Concluding their 10-month investigation, prosecutors said in a news release today that they decided not to charge Hsia and his father with homicide.
Prosecutors believe it is highly likely that Lai took his life, not being under the influence of drugs or alcohol or being controlled by force.
Prosecutors said the conclusion was informed by autopsy reports, medical records, evidence collected during on-site investigations, witness testimony and security camera footage.
Prosecutors believe that Lai, who was 169cm tall, crossed the 128cm-high fence of the balcony by himself.
Grabbing the fence and facing the living room, he fell to his death, in an attempt believed to be suicide.
Prosecutors also said they could not confirm that Lai’s death was caused by an injection of a high amount of potassium chloride or tripotassium phosphate, citing two lab reports from National Taiwan University College of Medicine.
Prosecutors said they had no predetermined stance and did not rule out any possibilities during their evidence-based investigation.
They said they decided not to press murder charges against Hsia and his father based on the principle of presumption of innocence.
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