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SINGAPORE \u2013 A domestic worker who suffocated her employer\u2019s 73-year-old father with a pillow while he slept has been sentenced to life imprisonment.<\/p>\n
Sumiyati, a 53-year-old Indonesian national who goes by one name, was convicted on July 29 of murder.<\/p>\n
She had attacked the man in his home in Bishan Street 23 in 2022. She was angry because she felt he had accused her of stealing his wife\u2019s jewellery.<\/p>\n
Justice Mavis Chionh said that based on the evidence, she was satisfied that the prosecution had proven Sumiyati committed murder, but added that the question was whether the court should exercise discretion on imposing the maximum penalty of death.<\/p>\n
\u201cI agree with the prosecution and defence that while the killing of the deceased was indeed a horrific tragedy, this was not a case where the accused can be said to have exhibited viciousness or a blatant disregard for human life,\u201d said the judge.<\/p>\n
The victim, who lived with his wife and his daughter, had mobility issues. His daughter employed Sumiyati in September 2019 to be her father\u2019s caregiver.<\/p>\n
Some time around 2021, Sumiyati\u2019s employer extended her employment contract and increased her salary as they were happy with her service. The helper also indicated that her employer\u2019s father was caring and gentle towards her.<\/p>\n
But around late-2021, Sumiyati began requesting for her salary to be paid in advance.<\/p>\n
She also borrowed money from her employer\u2019s father and his wife, lying that she needed the money to cover medical costs her family had incurred in Indonesia.<\/p>\n
In 2022, Sumiyati started to steal from the family, and took jewellery from her employer\u2019s mother after noticing where the older woman kept it in the cupboard.<\/p>\n
On separate occasions between April 12, 2022, and April 21, 2022, Sumiyati stole three gold rings, a gold bracelet and a pair of gold earrings from the man\u2019s wife.<\/p>\n
She pawned the jewellery, worth more than $1,400, at a shop near the family\u2019s Bishan flat.<\/p>\n
When her employer\u2019s mother discovered that her jewellery was missing, the family confronted Sumiyati. The helper admitted that she had stolen it and gave them the pawnshop ticket.<\/p>\n
She told them that she would redeem the jewellery in future with her salary, and pleaded with the family not to make a police report. They decided to give her a chance.<\/p>\n
On April 28, 2022, Sumiyati stole $150 from her employer\u2019s father\u2019s wallet while he was having his lunch. She left the flat and went to a shop nearby where she remitted the money to a bank account in Indonesia.<\/p>\n
After she returned to the flat, the wheelchair-bound man questioned Sumiyati about his wife\u2019s missing necklace for about 30 minutes.<\/p>\n
The court heard that he urged her to confess if indeed she had stolen the necklace, or his wife would make a police report.<\/p>\n
The prosecution said he believed she had stolen the necklace, and wanted her to return it. Angered that she had been accused, Sumiyati decided to kill the man.<\/p>\n
She was also afraid he would find out that she had stolen money from the flat earlier in the day.<\/p>\n
Sumiyati considered different ways of killing him, and eventually decided to suffocate him with a pillow.<\/p>\n
She waited until she heard the man snoring. She then covered his face with a pillow and forcefully pressed it down.<\/p>\n
He struggled, but she continued to hold the pillow down forcefully for around 30 minutes. He had already stopped moving by then, but she wanted to make sure he was dead.<\/p>\n
Once she was sure, she returned the pillow to its original position and packed her personal belongings. She also took $70 from the man\u2019s wallet, his two mobile phones and a pair of his wife\u2019s earrings before she left the flat.<\/p>\n
When the man\u2019s wife returned home in the evening that day, he was unresponsive and his body was cold to the touch.<\/p>\n
Sumiyati was arrested at around midnight on April 29, 2022.<\/p>\n
In mitigation, Sumiyati\u2019s lawyer Mohamed Muzammil Mohamed said the helper was a divorcee with three children from past marriages.<\/p>\n
He said that during her time in Singapore, she was cheated by three men in various scams, and stole and borrowed from her employer\u2019s parents to cover her losses.<\/p>\n
In court, Sumiyati said she was under the control of hypnosis and black magic by one of the scammers, who had suggested that she steal from her employers.<\/p>\n
The judge said: \u201cThis is without a doubt a tragic case where the accused, who on her own account had unfortunately lost money to scams, stole from employers and eventually ended up killing the deceased \u2013 a man who she accepts was caring and gentle towards her.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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SINGAPORE \u2013 A domestic worker who suffocated her employer\u2019s 73-year-old father with a pillow while he slept has been sentenced to life imprisonment. Sumiyati, a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":72125,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2611],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-72637","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-headlines","wpcat-2611-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72637","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=72637"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72637\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/72125"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=72637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=72637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=72637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}