You Have Been Defended [EN]: Chapter 359

You Have Been Defended – Episode 359

Recess.

Hwang Young-chan sat on a secluded bench and lit a cigarette.

“Sir.”

Soon after, a prosecutor approached him, bowing respectfully.

“Sit down. Have a smoke.”

“No, thank you. I’ll stand and listen.”

“Tough, isn’t it?”

“…I certainly don’t think he’s an easy opponent.”

Hwang Young-chan gave a bitter smile at the prosecutor’s words.

It was the same thing that everyone who had faced Cha Joo-han had said, differing only in expression.

Suddenly, he remembered the moment he had briefly made eye contact with Cha Joo-han earlier.

He couldn’t forget the humiliation he felt when he met those cold eyes that seemed to mock his situation.

It wasn’t that he had faced him frequently until now, but it wasn’t infrequent either, as they encountered each other every so often when he was about to forget.

Each time, Hwang Young-chan was mercilessly defeated and trampled on.

Nothing ever went Hwang Young-chan’s way.

If he didn’t properly wrap up this case, he would probably be demoted to a regional position in the next personnel reshuffle.

He often wondered when he, who had been on a winning streak, started living such a desperate life.

The time had come to put an end to it.

“I’m concerned that the witness, Byun Seung-min, said he took a photo. It seems like that could come out as evidence…”

The prosecutor spoke with difficulty.

Hwang Young-chan shook his head.

“No, it won’t.”

“Yes? But he said he took a photo…”

“I took care of it.”

“Completely, you mean?”

“He might have stored it somewhere else, so it could pop up during the third trial. But it will be taken care of before then.”

“…That’s a relief.”

“Keep pushing. Blow away their witness just like they blew away ours.”

“Should we frame Byun Seung-min as a suspect?”

“Then are you planning to release Kim Hwa-young as innocent? We need to tie them together as accomplices.”

Hwang Young-chan finished speaking and checked his wristwatch.

The court would reopen soon.

“Let’s go.”

* * *

“We will resume the session.”

After the recess, the court reopened.

During the recess, I spoke with Tae-shik on the phone.

Tae-shik had searched the courthouse like crazy while the court was in session, but he hadn’t found the phone.

Byun Seung-min hadn’t been separated from Tae-shik’s side from the moment he arrived at the courthouse until he entered the courtroom.

Tae-shik’s guess was this:

When they entered the courthouse, Byun Seung-min said he needed to use the restroom, so they went to the bathroom together.

Tae-shik and Joon-beom also urinated while they were there, and Byun Seung-min went to wash his hands at the sink first.

Byun Seung-min said that someone came next to him and washed their hands together at that time, and that person must have swiped the phone.

Aside from that moment, there wasn’t really a moment when he could have lost his phone.

For Byun Seung-min, the phone was a lifeline to get 400 million [Korean currency, roughly equivalent to $300,000 USD] from us, so he hadn’t taken it out since arriving at the courthouse.

Even if they were wearing a mask, Wooshin would have had plenty of photos of Byun Seung-min, so it wouldn’t have been difficult to recognize him.

Before the trial, when we had Byun Seung-min with us separately, we said we would print the photos so they could be submitted immediately in court.

At that time, Byun Seung-min vehemently refused, saying that it was no different from handing over the photos before the court session, and this is how it ended up.

“Prosecution, do you have any cross-examination?”

Byun Seung-min is a witness with many loopholes.

The only reason we chose Byun Seung-min as a witness was because he had the photos.

With that one photo, we could prove Kim Hwa-young’s innocence and reveal the crimes of the Go Yoon-ho and Go Yoon-min brothers, no matter what attacks came through cross-examination.

But without that photo, Byun Seung-min quickly becomes an obstacle that greatly undermines our integrity.

It becomes a card that would have been much better not to have chosen as a witness.

“Witness, how many minutes does it take for a person to die when they are strangled?”

“…Yes? Well, there are cases where people die by hanging, so wouldn’t it take at least 2 or 3 minutes?”

“I see. Now, witness. You said you were in a romantic relationship with the deceased, correct?”

“That’s right.”

“Looking at the photos presented by the defendant, it does seem like you were in a romantic relationship. However, I have some questions because there are some doubts.”

“Yes.”

“You said that you hid behind a pillar and took a photo when the defendant first started strangling the victim. That’s the photo that was reported to the police. But in a typical romantic relationship, it feels strange that someone would take a photo instead of trying to stop someone from strangling their girlfriend.”

“That’s because, in case there were problems later, I wanted to leave evidence…”

“You said you thought you should leave evidence. But what’s the point of leaving evidence after someone dies? In your previous question, you said you thought it would take 2 or 3 minutes to die from strangulation. The distance between the room where the defendant and the victim were fighting and the pillar is quite far. Judging by the image quality, it looks like you took the photo with the zoom pulled in. You must have watched the two of them start fighting from behind the pillar. The defendant took off his top and rushed in.”

“Yes. That’s what happened.”

“The defendant assaulted you and then started strangling her. At that time, did you think it would take less than a minute to turn on the camera app, focus, zoom in, take the photo, save it, and run into the room to stop them?”

“…I don’t think it would take up to 2 minutes.”

“That’s right. But if it’s 2 minutes, isn’t that enough time to die, according to your thinking? Isn’t it strange to spend time taking pictures when your girlfriend is being strangled and you could save her right away, for example, going to save her after about 1 minute and 30 seconds?”

“…”

“Also, Go Yoon-ho and Go Yoon-min suddenly entered the defendant’s villa and started assaulting the victim. And you said you were on the phone at that time.”

“…That’s right.”

“You said you went into a place where you couldn’t be seen from the pool and answered the phone. So you actually thought the victim was arguing and being assaulted by someone, but you thought you had a movie playing. If your girlfriend was screaming, you would have heard it clearly even if you were far away. Do you think it’s possible to mistake that for the sound of a movie?”

“But I really thought it was the sound of a movie. There was no one at the villa, and Sang-eun was in a good mood, so there was no reason to scream… And she usually liked to watch movies with the sound turned up loud, so I naturally thought that was the case.”

“I see. Okay. That’s possible. But after that, when you found out that someone had entered the house and was assaulting the victim. You took a picture again without going to stop them right away.”

“I told you, I was scared because of who they were!”

“Yes, traces of assault were also found on the victim’s body. So you’re saying that such excessive violence was happening, and the victim was being unilaterally beaten, but you didn’t stop them?”

“That’s, that’s what I think I did wrong. But…”

“And you didn’t report it to the police either?”

“…”

Byun Seung-min sighed.

There must have been a reason why Byun Seung-min didn’t report it to the police.

He would have welcomed the situation more than anyone else.

No, he might have even felt disappointed that Kim Hwa-young had failed to strangle the housekeeper in the first place.

If he called the police, the situation would end, and Wooshin would hate him for making Go Yoon-ho and Go Yoon-min go in and out of the police station, so what reason would Byun Seung-min have to call the police?

Of course, he would have also considered the possibility that the housekeeper would not die due to the assault by Go Yoon-ho and Go Yoon-min.

In that case, since Byun Seung-min said he was in a place where he couldn’t be seen from the pool, he could kneel and cry, saying he didn’t know because he was inside, if the housekeeper resented him for appearing so late.

Another method would be to directly murder the housekeeper, who clearly had traces of being assaulted by Go Yoon-ho and Go Yoon-min.

“Did you really love the victim?”

“…It’s true that I’m a coward. I’m just full of shame and regret in front of the dead Sang-eun. But it’s true that I loved her. Really!”

“Traces of Go Yoon-ho and Go Yoon-min entering the villa were not found on the CCTV confiscated by the police. Of course, the same goes for public CCTV. You said you took a photo, can you show us that photo?”

“The photo, there was a photo…”

Byun Seung-min began to stammer.

He seemed to be overwhelmed with fear as the prosecutor began to press him.

“There was, there was a photo on my phone, but I lost it at the courthouse today…”

“So you’re saying you can’t present it now. Then it seems difficult to accept it as fact.”

“It’s at home, it’s left on an external hard drive! If I bring it from there, even now…”

The moment he said that, the photo evidence flew away [was lost].

Byun Seung-min was so flustered that he even said where he kept the photos, so Wooshin would probably be moving quickly to take care of Byun Seung-min’s external hard drive by now.

It’s not known whether the house he’s talking about is really his house or a temporary residence where he’s been hiding.

But since he appeared in court, it wouldn’t be difficult to retrace where Byun Seung-min has been living and find him.

“There were no visitors to the villa on the day the victim was strangled by the defendant. Therefore, the defendant has the strongest possibility of murdering the victim. But according to the witness, the witness was at the villa that day. There are no traces of him entering or leaving on the CCTV, but the witness is claiming that he was there. The witness did not stop the defendant from strangling the victim. This is proven by the photo that the witness took himself. In this situation, it seems like the witness may have been in collusion with the defendant to eliminate the victim. What do you think?”

“That’s ridiculous. Absolutely, absolutely not. That’s ridiculous!”

The prosecutor pressured Byun Seung-min in the same way that I had retracted Park Hyun-sook’s testimony.

But he didn’t let Kim Hwa-young go.

He chose to tie Byun Seung-min as an accomplice with Kim Hwa-young.

“Your Honor, I submit additional evidence. I couldn’t submit it in advance because it was evidence secured during the recess, but it is evidence that proves that the witness had a strong motive to kill the victim. It is also decisive evidence that determines whether the witness’s testimony is credible.”

“Objection. This trial is to determine the guilt or innocence of the defendant. The witness’s motive for murder has nothing to do with it.”

Kang Min-jae stood up and spoke, but the judge called the associate judges again to discuss and then answered briefly.

“Since Byun Seung-min’s testimony is dividing the issue of this trial, it is deemed necessary to look at the evidence. Prosecutor, submit the evidence.”

It seems to be an insurance policy [a backup plan].

I didn’t include it in the list of evidence on purpose to focus on Kim Hwa-young, because I didn’t know Byun Seung-min would come to court as our witness.

It seems they prepared it during the recess.

“Please look at the screen. This is a copy of the victim’s life insurance policy. The beneficiary is set as the witness. The witness took out a large insurance policy of 500 million won in his girlfriend’s name. The reason why the witness did not stop the victim from strangling the defendant is also more natural if you think about it for this reason.”

“You son of a bitch! Sob, you son of a bitch…!”

A middle-aged woman’s cry erupted from the audience.

It was someone who appeared to be the housekeeper’s mother among the bereaved family.

Byun Seung-min turned around, shook his head, and shouted.

“No! I, I never wanted Sang-eun to die! Sang-eun also took out life insurance in my name! We were born in a house with nothing, so we took out insurance in the sense that we would be something to each other, Sang-eun also took out insurance in my name!”

So that’s how he seduced the housekeeper to take out insurance.

You can’t take out insurance without the insured’s consent, so I wondered how he did it.

It seems he made them take out insurance, saying that since we don’t have anything to lean on, let’s take out life insurance in case of an emergency and become a strength to each other.

Since they were taking it out for each other, the housekeeper wouldn’t have suspected it much.

“That’s all.”

“No! Damn it, no! That never happened! Go Yoon-min and Go Yoon-ho killed Sang-eun! Those bastards killed her!”

Byun Seung-min lost his temper and started to rampage, and was eventually dragged out by the court police.

“Well… The defendant’s next witness is Jung Na-jin. Witness Jung Na-jin, please come to the witness stand.”

At the judge’s words, Jung Na-jin pushed open the door and stood in front of the witness stand.

She is the last witness we requested.

She seemed a little nervous, but after calmly taking the witness oath, she carefully looked at me.

“Witness, please introduce yourself.”

“I am Jung Na-jin, a life insurance planner at Hanyoung Life Insurance, who designed the victim’s life insurance.”