IPOH: A 54-year-old homeless man, who has right arm is amputated, has been sentenced to five years' jail by the High Court here for culpable homicide.
Justice Datuk Abdul Wahab Mohamed ordered Chin Ling Sin, who was initially charged with murder under Section 302 of the Penal Code, to serve the sentence from the date of his arrest on Oct 21, 2022.
The prosecution had reduced the charge from Section 302 to Section 304(b), and the judge accepted the accused's guilty plea.
Section 304(b) states that offenders can be jailed for up to 10 years, or fined, or both, if the act is done with the knowledge that it is likely to cause death but without any intention to cause death, or to cause such bodily injury as is likely to cause death.
The accused was initially charged with murdering Leong Chow Wah,67, between 4.50am and 5.50am in a lane behind a restaurant on Jalan Leong Sin Nam here.
The accused had hit the victim using his hands, legs and a glass bottle during an altercation.
In his submissions, Chin's counsel Ranjit Singh Sandhu said the deceased died as he had a heart condition and that the death was not directly caused by the accused.
He said this could be ascertained in the post-mortem report, which states that the altercation between the two occurred after the deceased tried to take RM200 belonging to the accused.
He said the accused is a beggar and has no permanent place of residence.
"After begging during the day, the accused usually sleeps on the sidewalk along Jalan Leong Sin Nam at night.
"On the night of the incident, the accused was sleeping on the sidewalk when the deceased tried to take the money.
"The accused said what happened was not something he planned," he said.
The case was prosecuted by DPP Yasinnisa Begam Seeni Mohtdeen.
