The court affirmed the conviction and death sentence for murder, rejecting the appellant's intoxication and insanity defenses, emphasizing that self-induced intoxication does not absolve criminal responsibility.

JUDGMENT

SM Komathy Suppiah JCA:

Introduction

[1] The appellant was convicted and sentenced to death by the High Court for the murder of an 85 year old Chinese female (the deceased), under s 302 of the Penal Code . The appellant being dissatisfied with his conviction and sentence has appealed to this Court.

[2] The charge on which the appellant was convicted read as follows:

"Bahawa kamu pada 19 September 2019 antara jam lebih kurang 11.40 pagi hingga 1.00 petang, bertempat di No 104, Blok 1, Rumah Pangsa PKNS, Kg Tasik Tambahan, 68000 Ampang, Selangor di dalam dalam Daerah Hulu Langat, di dalam negeri Selangor Darul Ehsan, telah melakukan bunuh dengan mengakibatkan kematian terhadap Wong Chooi (No. KP: 431109-71-5436) dan dengan itu kamu telah melakukan suatu kesalahan yang boleh dihukum di bawah s 302 Kanun Keseksaan."

Case For The Prosecution

[3] The circumstances which led to the appellant's conviction were briefly as follows. The prosecution's case against the appellant was based on circumstantial evidence as there were no eyewitnesses to the crime.

[4] The unchallenged evidence led by the prosecution established that on the morning of 19 September 2019, the appellant was seen loitering in the vicinity of the PKNS flats in Ampang where the deceased lived with her son. At that time, the deceased's son was at work. The appellant saw the deceased walking alone and followed her into her flat where he committed the most egregious and cruel acts on the deceased. He tied up the deceased's hands at the back and pushed a piece of cloth deep into her throat to prevent her from screaming and took two blouses and wrapped them tightly around her mouth. One of the blouses had covered her nose.

[5] The appellant then proceeded to rape and sodomise the deceased. He then ransacked the premises and took some cash and a gold chain. He left, leaving her face down on the mattress gagged and with her hands tied up. His fingerprints and DMA were found on the deceased, her clothes and in the house.

[6] The deceased's son returned home from work at around 5pm. When he went into his room, he noticed his cupboard was broken, whereupon, he went into the next room to check on his mother, but found her dead with her face down on the bed, bound and gagged. He telephoned the police who came and cordoned off the crime scene.

[7] The prosecution also led evidence that at about 9 am, the next day, the appellant had gone to Yong Fong, a pawn shop in Kampung Baru Ampang, to pawn the gold chain. As the appellant did not have his identity card with him, PW10, an employee there, advised him to come back with his identity card.

[8] The appellant then went to a restaurant nearby, where he met PW8, a lorry driver. He pleaded with PW8 to help him as he urgently needed money for the medical treatment of his child who was seriously ill. He told PW8 that the chain belonged to him. PW8 relented and followed the appellant to the pawn shop, where the gold chain was pawned for RM900.00 using PW8's identity card. PW10 issued a receipt in PW8's name.

[9] The appellant was arrested by the police on 9 October 2019 at his sister's house in Bandar Puchong Jaya, Selangor on information received. The appellant was arrested based on CCTV footage obtained from a CCTV installed by one of the residents (PW7) at the PKNS flats. The appellant was questioned and subsequently led the police to the pawn shop where the gold chain was recovered.

[10] The medical evidence established that the deceased had died from suffocation. The pathologist (PW19) found 31 injuries on the body of the deceased. In his report, under the heading of summary and conclusions, he observed:

Summary and Conclusions

1. The deceased was an elderly Chinese lady who was positively identified by her son as the above-named person.

2. There was not pathological disease or toxicology that could have caused or contributed to her death at that particular moment in time.

3. Post mortem examination revealed that there were cloths applied ext