South Korean court convicts 23-year-old man in car-and-stabbing attack that killed 2 and injured 12

By KIM TONG-HYUNG
Associated Press

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A South Korean judge has convicted a man of murder for an unprovoked car-and-stabbing rampage that killed two people and injured 12 others in a city near Seoul last year. Prosecutors had sought a death penalty for 23-year-old Choi Won-jong, but Judge Kang Hyun-koo of the Suwon District Court’s Seongnam branch gave him a life prison sentence. Choi was arrested in August after he rammed his car into pedestrians in a bustling leisure district in Seongnam and then stepped out of the crashed vehicle and stabbed people at random at a nearby shopping mall. The judge found Choi guilty of murder, attempted murder, and premediated murder on Thursday.