SINGAPORE: A woman was sentenced to 12 years’ jail on Friday (Jul 24) for fatally stabbing her married lover after their four-year relationship soured due to money troubles.
Li Ye, who was 37 at the time, stabbed her 56-year-old lover in the apartment they lived in at about 1.40am on May 8, 2024, leading to his death. The man was married to another woman.
Appearing in court in the standard purple prison outfit, the Chinese national, now 40, pleaded guilty on Friday to one count of culpable homicide not amounting to murder.
Deputy Public Prosecutors Grace Chua and Nicole Teo argued for 12 to 13 years’ jail for Li, citing multiple aggravating factors, including that the victim was also her romantic partner who lived with her.
“No partner is entitled to resort to violence,” said Ms Chua.
While Li may have been unhappy with her partner for not paying his share of the rent and using money meant for her daughter’s school fees to trade in foreign currencies, she should have sought to resolve the issues through lawful means, the court heard.
The prosecution highlighted Li had attempted to stab her lover with a pair of scissors just days before fatally attacking him with a kitchen knife.
Characterising the case as domestic violence, Ms Chua disagreed with the defence’s claim that Li had considered her lover to have trespassed when he entered the unit against her wishes.
He was the legal tenant and any claims that he was living there rent-free did not reflect the financial history between the couple, she said, noting that the man had supported Li and her children financially before he stopped paying rent.
On the day of the stabbing, the man was lying in the bed they shared, using his phone and “essentially minding his own business” when Li returned home, the prosecution argued.
When she demanded he leave the unit, he walked to the kitchen and did not engage or fight back, Ms Chua said.
After he refused to leave, Li picked up the knife, and the man had tried to de-escalate the situation, holding the hand that she was using to hold the knife and telling her to calm down, she added.
In mitigation, Li’s lawyer Rayner Gooi of Panzer Law Corporation said she was a mother of two who had been pushed to the limit and felt forced to resort to extreme measures.
“She did not desire this outcome and deeply regrets that things turned out this way,” he added, noting that once Li realised what had happened, she was quick to try and render help, did not try to escape, and stayed with him until the police arrived.
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