SINGAPORE: A woman saw her boyfriend of nearly four years browsing his phone on the bed when she returned home from work and became aggrieved over his failure to contribute to the rent.
In the ensuing argument, Li Ye, a Chinese national, grabbed a knife from the kitchen counter and stabbed 56-year-old Lim Lai Guan once in the chest.
On Friday (July 24), Li, 40, was sentenced to 12 years’ jail after she pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder for killing Lim at a unit in the Citygate Residences condominium in Beach Road.
Li was a performance artiste manager at a nightclub that Lim frequented. After they met in September 2019, he told her he was undergoing divorce proceedings with his wife.
They began a romantic relationship in July 2020 and lived together.
In June 2021, she and her son from her previous marriage, together with Lim, moved into the condo unit. She was no longer working at the nightclub by then.
Lim resigned from his job as a manager at a medical instruments company in late 2021.
But he assured her that he could continue paying the $3,200 rent, as well as the expenses of her and her son, from the money he earned from forex trading.
In January 2022, Li arranged for her daughter, who was in China, to live with them.
When Li wanted to open a shop selling gowns to performance artistes, Lim invested $30,000 and paid the $2,000 rent.
However, he suffered losses from forex trading as well as the gown business, and started borrowing money from friends.
When Li started working at the nightclub again to earn some money, Lim became unhappy.
He repeatedly visited her at work to create a scene, and this led to numerous arguments between the couple that sometimes turned physical.
Li started paying half the rent, which had increased to $3,900, as well as her children’s expenses. From December 2023, she began paying the rent in full.
Over the next few months, Li was upset with him for not contributing to the rent and wanted to break up with him.
He also sent her insulting messages when she did not reply to his text messages.
In the early hours of May 5, 2024, she picked up a pair of scissors and hit him in the chest with the sharp end as they argued.
He continued staying at the unit, although the couple were not on talking terms.
At about 1.20am on May 8, 2024, when she got home, Lim was lying on their loft bed and looking at his mobile phone.
Upon seeing him, Li thought about his repeated failures to contribute to the rent as well as his past insulting messages to her.
Upset, she grabbed him by the shoulders and demanded that he leave.
He walked to the kitchen and insisted that he had a right to stay as he was the legal tenant.
When she pointed the knife at him, he told her to calm down, but she stabbed him.
After he collapsed, Li shouted to her daughter to call an ambulance while attempting to render aid to Lim.
Lim was pronounced dead at Tan Tock Seng Hospital at 2.30am.
Li was arrested at the unit later that day at about 4.50am.
An autopsy found that the stab wound penetrated the aorta of the heart.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Grace Chua sought 12 to 13 years’ jail, saying that this was a case of domestic violence against Li’s romantic partner of close to four years, with whom she had lived.
“Notwithstanding the deceased’s financial irresponsibility or his previous hurtful conduct towards the accused, the accused’s act of stabbing the deceased to address her grievances was clearly disproportionate and completely unjustifiable,” she said.
She added that Li initiated and escalated the confrontation, while the unarmed victim tried to move away from her.
Defence counsel Rayner Gooi said his client instructed him not to challenge the prosecution’s sentencing submission as she was concerned about being seen as unrepentant.
He noted that she was quick to render aid, did not hide evidence and stayed at the scene until the police took her into custody.
The lawyer also submitted a letter to the court in which the woman apologised to the victim’s family and said she would not be able to watch her children grow up. - The Straits Times/ANN
