Korean expat faces multiple homicide suit

MULTIPLE homicide charges were filed against the Korean national for the killing of his live-in partner and her parents at the Lapu Lapu City Regional Trial Court yesterday.

Prosecutors raised the case to the court after Kim Se Wong, 36, waived filing a counter-affidavit to refute allegation he had a hand in the gruesome May 22 crime at a restaurant in Lapu Lapu City.

Present in yesterday’s closed-door proceedings with Assistant City Prosecutor Aida Castillo was Ahn Tae Joo, the brother of Kim’s live-in partner Youngmi An.

Kim denied killing his live-in partner and her parents Ho An and Kim Soonok inside the Han Ga Wi restaurant in barangay Maribago.

He said he had a drinking session with Youngmi and a friend Wednesday evening before he fell asleep at around 1 a.m. Thursday.

When he woke up at around 5 a.m., Kim said, he was surprised to see the dead body of the victims.

“Ako check. . . patay na. Hindi ko alam. (I checked my live-in partner and her parents. They were already dead. I don’t know what happened to them),” said Kim, who can speak a little English and Tagalog.

Disheartened by what happened to the victims and wanting to join his live-in partner in death, he said he tried to commit suicide by slashing his wrist using different objects around him.

He denied having a spat with Youngmi, his live-in partner for four years. He has yet to secure the services of a lawyer to defend him in court.

Kim came to the Philippines in 2006, staying in Boracay before he decided to settle in Cebu over a year ago.

In 2011, Kim was found guilty of estafa by Judge Gilbert Moises of the Regional Trial Court in Cebu City Branch 18. He was meted the penalty of four years and two months of imprisonment and was mandated to pay P1.5 million.

Police secured a copy of the decision but Kim denied having been convicted by the court. He will be committed to the Lapu-Lapu City Jail today pending resolution of the charges of multiple homicide filed against him.

He has been detained at the Lapu-Lapu City Police Office since last Friday night after he was discharged from the hospital for his wounds.

He was found at the attic of the family’s restaurant at around 5 p.m. of May 22 when a female Korean friend of the family visited the restaurant. She asked the security guard to unlock the back door of the establishment where blood stains were found.

Police forced their way into the locked restaurant and found the victims sprawled on the ground.

They later found Kim and rushed him to the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center.

Police also found two bloodstained knives and broken chairs at the scene. /With UP Cebu Intern Angeli Sarmiento