KOTA KINABALU: A businessman from Johor was sentenced to 14 years’ imprisonment by the High Court here yesterday for causing death.
Judge Chew Soo Ho passed the sentence on Lim Tiam Chye, 46, after the latter pleaded guilty to a charge under Section 304 (a) of the Penal Code.
The judge said the court made the decision after taking into account the facts of the case and that a person had lost his life.
Lim had caused the death of Yagon Ubit, 58, on August 10, 2012, at 12.45pm at a restaurant in Donggongon, Penampang.
The offence carries a maximum jail of 30 years and a fine upon conviction.
Previously, the accused was charged under Section 302 of the Penal Code, which provides for the mandatory death sentence by hanging upon conviction.
However, the prosecution offered an alternative charge for the accused, which is under Section 304 of the same Code, after six witnesses were called to testify during the trial.
During mitigation, lawyer Ram Singh who represented the accused, asked that his client’s sentence be reduced.
He said this was the first trial of the accused, which started early January last year.
He added that the accused had also apologised to the victim’s family, and suggested for a jail sentence of 13 to 18 years, considering the age of the accused.
Deputy public prosecutor Dominic Chew Ban Huat said the action of the accused had caused a huge loss to the victim’s family.
According to him, the weapon used by the accused was a pocket knife, where he was aware of its capability as a murder weapon.
“The court must also remember that the crime was committed in a public place (restaurant) where public safety should be preserved,” he said, adding that the accused had stabbed the victim multiple times, which then caused the latter’s death.
The victim’s wife, he added, suffered heart problems as a result of the shock, and to see her husband in a severely injured condition at the hospital’s emergency unit, and had been living in fear ever since.
Other than that, he said the incident had left the victim’s wife without financial support, added with the fact that it had also left her with a health condition that did not allow her to work, apart from severe emotional distress.
The court however ordered the accused to carry out the sentence beginning from the date of arrest in 2012.