Court clears man in suffocation death of childhood friend

The Incheon District Court said Wednesday that it acquitted a man accused of fatally assaulting his childhood friend, finding there was insufficient evidence to prove he caused the victim's death.

Prosecutors had alleged that the man shoved his friend to the ground during an argument on a street in Incheon's Bupyeong District at around 9:18 p.m. on Nov. 23, 2024. The victim's neck reportedly became wedged in a 6-centimeter (2.4-inch) gap between a bench and a fence. Prosecutors accused the defendant of pressing down on the victim with his body despite seeing the victim's neck trapped, causing the victim to suffocate.

Police said both parties were intoxicated at the time.

The victim was taken to a nearby hospital by paramedics at around 10:52 p.m. that night but later died of compressional asphyxia.

The court ruled that the prosecution had failed to prove the charges beyond a reasonable doubt.

"The dashcam footage of the scene was recorded from a considerable distance and is of poor quality, which makes it impossible to clearly determine how the victim's neck became trapped or whether the defendant pressed down on him after that," the court said. "The autopsy shows that the victim had been heavily intoxicated."

The court also pointed to the victim's level of intoxication, noting, "It also cannot be ruled out that the victim, because of severe intoxication, was unable to control their body, became trapped by the neck and failed to respond appropriately, which led to death by asphyxiation."

The court also cited the two parties' longstanding friendship.

"The two had been close friends since elementary school. The victim even looked after the defendant's younger sibling, who had long suffered from poor health," it said. "There also appears to have been no particular motive for the defendant to commit the crime."

BY JANG GU-SEUL [lee.jiwon10@joongang.co.kr]