SINGAPORE - In sentencing a 32-year-old man to death for the
murder of a taxi driver, a High Court judge said he found that the
prosecution had proved its case beyond reasonable doubt.
Chinese national Wang Wenfeng was yesterday found guilty of
murdering Mr Yuen Swee Hong, 58, inside his taxi in April
2009.
Justice Lee Sieu Kin said: "... The accused's actions after the
deceased had died are not inconsistent with the evidence that
proves his guilt and they do not constitute any cause for
reasonable doubt."
Justice Lee noted that Wang had even "tried to exploit the
situation" that Mr Yuen's wife was in after murdering her
husband.
During his trial earlier this year, the court heard that Wang had
called Madam Chan Oi Lin, claiming that he had kidnapped Mr Yuen
and demanded S$150,000 in ransom even though Wang had already
killed the cabby and dumped his body in a forest.
Mr Yuen was killed in the early hours of April 11, 2009, in Jalan
Selimang in Sembawang after a struggle with Wang in his taxi.
Wang had boarded Mr Yuen's taxi at Sun Plaza in Sembawang with the
intention of robbing him.
The court had heard that the stab wounds Mr Yuen suffered were of
such depth that they resulted in heavy bleeding and caused him to
lose consciousness within a short time.
This showed that Wang "could only have done it with the intention
to inflict that injury" and that injury "was sufficient in the
ordinary course of nature to cause death", said Justice Lee.
During the murder trial, which was held between March and April,
the High Court had also heard about the circumstances leading to
the tragic event.
Wang, a labour agent who had been struggling to make ends meet in
Singapore, had to leave the country by April 15 in 2009 after his
work permit was cancelled.
He had tried borrowing the money for his flight ticket back to
Fujian. When he asked his sister and his wife - who were both here
- for money, they could not help him.
Thinking that robbing a cabby would help him get the money, Wang
packed a fruit knife and a pair of cotton gloves in his haversack
and walked to Sun Plaza in Sembawang.
But Wang got nervous and thought of abandoning his quest. He walked
along the road without hailing any taxis when Mr Yuen drove past,
stopped and reversed, and asked him where he wanted to go.
After Mr Yuen was killed, Wang drove his taxi to a multi-storey
carpark, cleaned out the bloodstains there and left.
Wang was arrested when he turned up at the travel agency two days
later (April 13) to collect his flight ticket which he had booked
to leave Singapore on April 14. Tanya Fong