Youths sentenced to 303 total years for Kaohsiung robberies

A total of 17 youngsters were indicted for robbing a total of 21 convenience stores in the summer of last year. Because the seven youngsters are the only ones in the group of legal age, they received the full extent of the law.

Even though the number of robberies is notable, the perpetrators walked away with not even NT$200,000, reported the United Daily News. The severity of the sentences has spurred a wave of complaints from family members of the accused, claiming that these are overly harsh.

Legal sources told the local daily that on July 1 of last year the sentencing law was changed to a “one crime, one sentence” policy, but in reality it was rarely imposed verbatim. The court’s recent harsh ruling has raised eyebrows throughout the community.

Among those sentenced was Chien Chia-chun, 20, who was charged with six counts of car theft for which he received six months each, 12 counts of robbery for which he received seven years each, and one case of attempted robbery for which he received four more years. The total just for Chien amounted to 91 years.

Next after Chien to receive the longest sentence was Chung Si-chi, charged with 11 counts of robbery for which he received seven years each and one count of attempted robbery for which he received four more years — a total of 81 years.

Mao Chun-te, 22, received a sentence of 45 years and six months for one count of car theft at one year and six months and six counts of robbery at seven years and six months each.

“I regret it a lot. Now I don’t dare go out, nor would I go out with friends just for any reason,” said Su Ching-lung, who, while he only served as a “lookout,” still received a 28-year sentence — seven each for his involvement in four separate counts of robbery.

Chen Ming-yi also received the same sentence as Su for his involvement in four counts of robbery at seven years each.

Chu Ming-he, 25, received 22 years and six months for three counts of robbery for which he received seven years and six months each. Because Chu did not even get out of the car during the robberies and did not receive any part of the stolen money, he told the paper he was wrongfully accused.

“When my friends were committing the crime, my head felt very dizzy. I wanted to go away, but I didn’t want them to think that I had ran away to report the crime to police, so I waited in the car,” said Chu.

Rounding up the group of seven is Wang Wen-yi, who received seven years for one count of robbery.

By comparison, one of the accused, Yeh Tsung-jen, who is a military officer and as such was sentenced by a military court, received a total of 10 years for two counts of car theft and four of robbery — a lighter sentence relative to the others.

The other nine underage defendants were charged with anywhere from seven to 20 counts of robbery and received sentences ranging from four years and ten months to nine months.

According to court records, the group of 21 youngsters, armed with knives and gas guns, robbed the convenience stores during a period of two weeks. They rode stolen motorcycles to commit the crimes. At one point they even robbed four different convenience stores within an hour.

Police were able to hone in on the suspects by matching the branded head gear worn by the perpetrators in the surveillance videos.

The court based its ruling by going with the age of the accused at the time of the crimes: if these were under the age of 18 they received the lightest sentence; if between 18 and 20 years old, then they received seven years per count of robbery; and if these were over the age of 20 they received the longest sentence of seven years and six months per robbery.

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