Details have emerged of the crimes committed by Kim So-young, 20, who was sentenced to life in prison at her first trial on charges of luring men to motels and giving them drugged drinks, killing two and injuring four. According to the ruling, she dragged a victim who had lost consciousness and repeatedly asked ChatGPT, a generative artificial intelligence service, about the dangers of the drugs. The ruling also set out the court's reasoning for acquitting her on a charge of aggravated bodily harm in a case dating to around October last year.
According to the ruling, released on the 9th, Kim dragged a victim who could no longer support himself while helping him walk during the crime on Dec. 14 last year. The victim drank a beverage Kim handed him in a car, then walked normally to a cafe and behaved unremarkably, looking around the interior for a place to sit.
After some time, however, the victim's head tilted increasingly backward and repeatedly fell over the back of his chair before he slid from his seat to the floor, unable to hold himself up, the ruling said. The defendant then moved him, supporting the victim as he struggled to walk, and boarded an elevator with him. When he failed to regain consciousness, she slapped his face and dragged him, according to the ruling.
She was acquitted in a separate case of aggravated bodily harm involving an incident at a restaurant in Seoul's Seocho district around October last year, in which crushed pills containing an unidentified drug were mixed into wine and another victim lost consciousness and was taken to a hospital. The Seoul Northern District Prosecutors' Office has appealed the partial acquittal, citing errors in fact-finding, misapplication of law and an inappropriate sentence.
The first-trial court said in the ruling that "the victim's statements are not only consistent but also specific and clear regarding the sequence of events and the circumstances of the harm, to a degree that could not be described without direct experience, including the particular features of the situation at the time, the defendant's words and conduct, and the victim's reactions and psychological and emotional state." It added, however, that "in a criminal trial, a finding of criminal conduct must rest on strict evidence with probative force sufficient to leave no room for reasonable doubt."
The 14th Criminal Division of the Seoul Northern District Court, presided over by Chief Judge Oh Byung-hee, sentenced Kim to life in prison on the 27th of last month on charges including murder, aggravated bodily harm and violation of the narcotics control law, and ordered her to wear an electronic tracking device for 30 years. Kim appealed on the 28th of last month, a day after the sentencing, and prosecutors appealed on the 2nd of this month.
Kim denied the murder charge during the trial, but the court found that she had come to recognize the possibility of death through the repetition of the offenses and her queries to ChatGPT about the dangers of the drugs. The ruling said she "appears to have learned, through the offenses, that taking alcohol together with a substantial quantity of the drug in this case can stop breathing and is dangerous enough to cause unconsciousness lasting about 32 hours or more, far exceeding 12 hours."
