The murder weapon, believed to be a hammer, was never found and a key accomplice has not been caught, but Chia Kee Chen had contradicted himself so many times in his testimony that a High Court judge had no doubt that the 56-year-old had murdered Dexmon Chua Yizhi, 37, the third party in his marriage.

Convicting Chia yesterday, Justice Choo Han Teck noted that the extent of the victim’s injuries — nearly every bone in his face was fractured — meant that there was intention to inflict such grievous injuries to cause death.

Chia, who will be sentenced at a later date, will either face life imprisonment or the death penalty.

In front of the police and in court, he spun incredible lies: Tales of untraceable accomplices and denying his involvement in the murder, Justice Choo said.

“(He) started a story which he had difficulty fabricating into a coherent whole,” the judge added.

For example, Chia told of calling his brother-in-law at 3am on the day of the crime to ask about the market prices for birds.

In reality, he had made the phone call to request help in moving the body, Justice Choo said. And while Chia insisted that two unidentified men were involved in the assault, the judge said that this was impossible.

Cleaning supervisor Chua Leong Aik, 67, and Febri Irwansyah Djatmiko, 33, an Indonesian, who both helped Chia carry out his plan, did not mention these two men in their police statements.

“We are not able to know the truth from (Chia) because he has either contradicted himself many times over, or is contradicted by the evidence of other witnesses, or has given incredible accounts,” Justice Choo said.

During the trial last year, the court heard that Chia’s wife, Madam Serene Goh, a sales executive, first met her colleague Chua, a materials analyst, in 2003.

They were working together in a packaging and processing company, and took the same company transport home.

In July 2011, Chua started sending Madam Goh, 51, home in his car. They grew closer and confided in each other about their marital problems — Madam Goh discovered that her husband had another family in Indonesia, where he ran a fish farm. A month later, the two colleagues began having an affair.

In November 2012, Chia saw romantic text messages from Chua on his wife’s phone and confronted her about them. She admitted to the affair and promised to end the relationship.

Chia was not satisfied, especially after he learnt that Chua had filmed sexual encounters with his wife and saved them in a thumbdrive, so he hatched a plan to kill Chua.

He gathered two friends, Febri and Chua Leong Aik, to help him. On Dec 28, 2013, the trio ambushed the victim at a multi-storey carpark near his Choa Chu Kang home.

The victim was bundled in a van, tied up, electrocuted with electrodes and assaulted as the van headed towards Lim Chu Kang. Chua Leong Aik, who was driving, said that he could hear “beating sounds” and smelled blood, and after a while, he “could not take it anymore”.

He got out of the van around the Lim Chu Kang area and took a bus back.

The other two men then drove to a military training area, where they dumped the victim’s body.

The police arrested Chia three days later, on New Year’s Eve. He led them to the decomposed body the next day.

Investigations revealed that the victim’s head had been smashed against the van, and a hammer was also used in the assault.

Chua died from head injuries, with nearly every bone from below his eyes to his lower jaw fractured. Prosecutors spoke during the trial of blood-splatter patterns seen in the van’s interior, with the victim’s blood found on the driver’s and front passenger seat as well, meaning that his blood was also on the attackers, who then stained the seats.

“It did not matter who dealt the crucial blow,” Justice Choo said, “although it seemed to me that Chia was the one. He was the man with the motive and the hatred for Dexmon. The other two were his assistants.”

Chua Leong Aik is serving a five-year jail term for abduction and voluntarily causing grievous hurt to the victim. Febri, who worked at Chia’s fish farm, remains at large in Indonesia.

Source:
courtesy of TODAY

by Valerie Koh

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