Selina Lum
Straits Times
November 7, 2024

In 2008, Heng Boon Chai was sentenced to eight years in prison for stabbing his 55-year-old uncle to death while suffering from paranoid delusions.

After his release from prison, Heng lived a quiet life with his mother in an apartment in Punggol.

But in 2021, a dispute with his neighbor over a noisy door and gate led to Heng’s final confrontation. fatally stabbed man with the victim’s knife.

In 2008, Heng, who suffered from schizophrenia, pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of murder after it was revealed that his condition made him less responsible for killing his uncle.

On November 7, 2024, Heng, 46, was sentenced to life imprisonment and 10 strokes of the cane for the murder of his next-door neighbour, Mr. Kim Wee Ming, a 46-year-old hawker stall assistant.

Deputy Public Prosecutors Christina Koh and Zhou Yang told the court that Heng moved in with her mother in her one-room rental flat in Sumang Walk near Punggol Center in 2018 after staying in a care centre.

Heng and his mother, Madam Ho Yoke Kiew, 72, initially had a cordial relationship with Mr Kim, who moved there in 2019.

They exchanged pleasantries along the corridor, and Mr. Kim treated them to pineapple tarts during Chinese New Year.

However, Mr. Kim was disturbed by the sound Ms. Ho made when closing the door and door of her apartment.

When Covid-19 restrictions were imposed in early 2020, Madam Ho would leave her home many times between 7pm and 4am at night to throw garbage in the communal garbage chute.

Neighbors argued about this many times.

During a conflict, Heng revealed that his gates were damaged. He also revealed that he had killed someone before.

On the afternoon of July 14, 2021, Mr. Kim was drunk and threw vulgar words through the metal door of his apartment at Heng, who was alone in his home.

Mr. Kim challenged Heng to a fight. He also mocked Heng by calling him “ah gua” (sissy) and “bo chi” (no guts) in Hokkien.

Heng tried to calm Mr. Kim down but was punched in the face.

After Heng told Mr. Kim to go home, Mr. Kim returned to his apartment to grab a knife, pointed the knife at Heng and banged on the door.

Heng reminded Mr. Kim that he was mentally ill and had been imprisoned for murdering someone.

When he told Mr. Kim to give him the knife, Mr. Kim threw the knife into the apartment and continued his taunts. He then took a metal pan from his apartment and banged on Heng’s door.

Heng took the knife and stabbed Mr. Kim’s neck through the door.

While pressing his bleeding neck, Mr. Kim called the police to report the stabbing and held a video call with his employer.

Heng called his father and told him that he had killed someone and asked him to take care of his mother.

Mr. Kim then smoked a cigarette and said to Heng: “If I die, you die too.”

DPP Zhou said that after the first stabbing, Heng, who did not wait for Mr Kim to return, opened the door, walked towards his neighbor and stabbed him repeatedly in the neck until he collapsed.

Heng returned home, put the knife on the table, and told his sister and mother over the phone that he had killed Mr. Kim.

Mr. Kim was pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics.

A psychiatrist from the Institute of Mental Health who examined Heng found that although he suffered from schizophrenia, there was no clear evidence that he had suffered a psychotic relapse at the time of the crime.

The psychiatrist said Heng’s actions stemmed from repeated provocations by Mr Kim and the perceived threat to his mother.

Heng pleaded no contest to the murder charge and was found guilty by High Court Judge Audrey Lim.

Describing the murder as a particularly tragic case of neighbor dispute, the judge agreed with the prosecution that the death penalty was not necessary in this case.

Judge Lim accepted that Heng’s actions did not show cruelty or a blatant disregard for human life.

He stated that Heng’s actions could not be condoned but that he admitted what he had done at a very early stage. He also told the prosecution to inform prison officials to continue monitoring Heng’s medical condition and treat him if necessary.

Heng’s lawyers, Mr Ng Yuan Siang and Mr Nichol Yeo, said the second attack was motivated by concern that the injured Mr Kim would retaliate against his mother when he returned home.

The defense stated, in mitigation, that the situation would not have worsened if Mr. Kim had not thrown the knife into Heng’s apartment.

The defense said Madam Ho only kept a plastic knife at home because she was worried about her son having access to sharp objects.

Heng’s parents, who divorced in 2017, spoke to him in court after his sentencing.

When Madam Ho tripped and fell in the courtroom, she briefly burst into tears, but calmed down after her lawyers helped her into a chair.