Life sentence finalized for man who killed three at a Seoul pizza joint

Kim Dong-won, who killed three people at his pizza shop in Gwanak District, southern Seoul, has had his life sentence finalized after deciding not to appeal to the Supreme Court.

Neither Kim nor the prosecutors filed an appeal by the deadline, so the appellate ruling became final on Friday, legal sources said Monday. The Seoul High Court had sentenced Kim to life imprisonment for the murders on June 11, the same as his first-trial sentence.

"Murder can never be tolerated under any circumstances," the appeals court said. "He does appear to have been under stress over interior design defects [at his pizza shop], but we concluded that killing in response [to that stress] cannot be understood by common social standards, so it cannot be regarded as grounds for leniency," it added.

Prosecutors had sought the death penalty at both trials. The court said it had weighed factors including Kim's admission of guilt and his remorse. "It is difficult to find special circumstances, beyond any doubt, that would justify the death penalty," it said.

Kim killed three people at the pizza shop he ran in the Jowon-dong neighborhood of Gwanak District last September: an employee of the pizza franchise's head office, an interior contractor and the contractor's daughter. He used a weapon he had hidden at the shop.

Kim had operated the franchise outlet since October 2023. Investigators found that he acted out of resentment after the head office and the interior company refused to make free repairs on the grounds that the warranty had expired.

BY HYEON YE-SEUL [[email protected]]