Wellington, New Zealand (AP) – New Zealand ju judges on Tuesday said Kill her two children And leave their bodies With a suitcase For years before they were discovered.
The verdict meant that the ju judges of the Auckland High Court refused to defend the crazy that lawyers had made for Hakyung Lee. handed over to face trial. The swift verdict arrived hours after the judges were sent to deliberation on Tuesday morning.
Lee was charged with murdering 6-year-old Min Woo Jo and 8-year-old Yuna Jo in June 2018. The body of a child was found in luggage in an abandoned storage unit in Auckland in August 2022.
A New Zealander, Lee traveled to Korea immediately after her children were believed to have been killed and changed her name in 2018. She was born in Korea and previously went under the name Juwn Li.
The 45-year-old woman was handed over from Korea in November 2022. She denied the charges, claiming her lawyer was crazy at the time of the murder.
Lee’s lawyers admitted that she killed the child by giving her antidepressants, but they said the death occurred after the client “descending into madness,” Lorraine Smith said. Lee is always “fragile,” Smith said, but her mental illness got worse after her husband’s death.
Prosecutors said Lee is likely suffering from depression, but not so serious as to support an insane defense. In New Zealand, such claims require murder defendants to prove they cannot understand what they are doing and what they were doing wrong.
Lee’s actions included “cold calculations,” prosecutor Natalie Walker told the court. Walker said Lee planned to kill his children out of selfishness and start a new life without them.
The body of a child was found after Lee stopped paying rent for his Auckland storage unit when he was in financial trouble in 2022. The contents of the locker were auctioned online, and the buyer found the body inside.
After Tuesday’s verdict, Judge Jeffrey Benin ordered Lee to remain in custody until he is sentenced to prison on November 26th. The murder will be sentenced to life in New Zealand, and judges will need to set a sentence of at least 10 years before the offender can apply for parole.
Venning said that when the trial began on September 8th, it was painful for Lee and gave him permission to view the case from another room in the courthouse. She returned to the dock for the verdict, standing with her head bowed and her hair over her face, New Zealand news agency reported.
