Man who said he did his childhood friend a favor by killing him is sentenced to 10 years

Source:
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-anaheim-korean-friend-killing-sentencing-10102020-snap-story.html

This summer, Beong Kwun Cho (57) was sentenced to spend the 10 years of his life in jail. It is related with an incident in early 2011 when he killed his friend, Yeon Woo Lee by shooting in the back of Lee’s head. Lee, lying next to his rental, was found dead. Cho said that Lee, wanting to commit suicide, had planned his own death. He had also asked Cho to shot him so that his family would not receive the social criticism about his suicide and would receive life insurance payouts.

There were two different views about the death of Lee. Jumi Lee, who is Lee’s daughter, judged Cho as a betrayal since he had killed and maligned his four decades friend. Lee was a strong and an open minded father. Consequently, Jumi Lee thought that it was impossible if his father had wanted to attempt suicide. In contrast, based on Robert Kohler, Lee’s attorney, there was a shocking fact about Lee. Lee had manipulated and coerced Cho to kill him by sexually assaulting Cho’s wife. Even though Lee had arranged this unpleasant event, Cho was still alleged as a suspect of a planned murder, because the evidences showed that he wore black gloves before shooting Lee.

It is such a very complicated incident. We will never know what happened in reality. We do not know whether Cho did a thing to help Lee or he was trapped by Lee. But I am very really sure, no matter what the reason was, killing his four decades friend was a very hard decision for Cho. In addition, Cho said that if he could give his life to apologize, he would. He also added that he would modest accept the punishment, whether it was 21 years in prison or death penalty.