Cho Sun, a 34-year-old who carried out a stabbing rampage near Seoul's Sillim Station, killing one person and injuring three others, was sentenced to life imprisonment at the first trial on Wednesday.

“To make sure Cho reflects on his misdeeds and to maintain social safety and order, the court decided to sentence Cho with the heaviest punishment following the death penalty,” said Seoul Central District Court in its ruling. The court also ordered Cho to wear a GPS-equipped electronic monitoring anklet for 30 years.

The court criticized Cho’s crimes, saying that they were committed in an “extremely brutal and vicious manner.”

“Cho’s crimes greatly impacted society, causing fear among those who heard or saw the news about his stabbing rampage and sparking several copycat crimes across the country,” added the district court.

Cho stabbed a man in his 20s, resulting in the man's death, and injured three other men in their 30s near Sillim Station in Gwanak-gu, southern Seoul on July 21, 2023. He was caught at the scene immediately after the crime and was arrested two days later on several charges, including murder and attempted murder.

It was also found that Cho had never met his four victims. While Cho initially told investigators that he had committed the crime because he had an “inferiority complex and wanted to make those who seemed happy unhappy,” Cho emphasized that he was mentally unfit in court during his trials. According to Cho’s lawyer, he had suffered from paranoia that someone was stalking him two to three days before the crime and felt the urge to attack anyone who looked like his stalker.

Under Article 10 of the Criminal Act, criminal punishment can be mitigated for those who are unable to control their own will due to having a "mental disorder." While the court did consider Cho’s paranoia defense, the court did not factor it in to reduce his sentence, asserting that he exhibited the ability to make deliberate decisions on his own, such as targeting parts of the body where stabbing the victim would likely result in death or preparing his weapon in advance.

In a prior trial on Jan. 10, prosecutors demanded the death penalty for Cho. However, as he had an emotionally unstable childhood and the crime was not premeditated, the court said that his actions were not at the level of a capital offense.