Single mum’s murder: Cop gets death
Published on: Friday, June 26, 2020
By: Jo Ann Mool
Ahmad Rizal: Sentenced to death for murdering a single mother in Keningau nine years ago.
Kota Kinabalu: A police inspector was sentenced to death by the High Court here Thursday for murdering a single mother in Keningau nine years ago.Ahmad Rizal Umar, 37, was found guilty by Judge Datuk Nurchaya Arshad of murdering Kartini Borhan, 27, between 4am and 5am on Sept 29, 2011 in a house at Taman Adika.
ADVERTISEMENT
Ahmad Rizal, who was a police inspector attached to the Keningau police station at the time of the incident, appeared restless and kept turning back and looking at his wife seated at the public gallery and his lawyers when Nurchaya delivered her ruling.
Nurchaya, in delivering her decision, held: “Having devoured the evidences adduced and written submissions produced by the respective parties in the winding-up of the most compelling gripping murder saga of Kartini Borhan (deceased) and my outline of the most pertinent existing factors needed to be appraised and having deliberated over the same, I now arrive at my decision.
“I am satisfied that the prosecution has proven all the elements of the charges preferred against the accused beyond all reasonable doubts and the defence has failed to prove on a balance of probabilities to rebut the finding of prima facie case, and I am also satisfied that his evidence has not raised any reasonable doubt as to the truth of the prosecution’s case.
“Hence, I therefore find the accused guilty as charged and convict him accordingly. The accused is hereby sentenced to death by hanging,” held Nurchaya.
ADVERTISEMENT
Ahmad Rizal was initially discharged and acquitted by another High Court judge on July 22, 2014 without his defence being called.
However, the Federal Court, on March 21, 2018, ordered him to enter his defence following an appeal by the prosecution against the High Court’s decision.
ADVERTISEMENT
Ahmad Rizal had opted to give his defence on oath on Oct 9, 2018.
.jpg)
He also called a forensic pathologist, Dr Bhupinder Singh, as a second witness in his defence.
Earlier, Nurchaya held that Kartini’s death was confirmed by Dr Jessie Hiu, a pathologist who conducted post-mortem on Kartini’s body and also certified the cause of her death to be a stab wound on her chest which was directed downwards cutting the ribs muscles, left lung, the covering of the heart and penetrated the heart through and through from the top right to the bottom of the heart.
The deceased had been identified by her father, Borhan Sulaiman, before the post mortem.
The prosecution through their witnesses unveiled Ahmad Rizal’s manifested destiny by becoming embroiled with Kartini which in the finale led to her being murdered by the former.
Nurchaya further held that the court found that the total effect of the prosecution evidence led to the irresistible inference and conclusion that it was Ahmad Rizal who had committed this crime.
“The presence of the accused at the scene of the crime, which is the aforesaid premises in which the deceased was a subtenant of the first room, was undisputed.
“There was insufficient evidence that there was a third party involved as asserted by the defence.
“This was substantiated by the medical expert opinion (the prosecution’s 23rd witness) finding that the injuries sustained by the accused were seIf-inflicted, there was no third party involved but only the fights between the deceased and the accused who caused the death of the deceased. That the injuries inflicted on the deceased which resulted in her death was caused by the accused.
“The motive which led to the killing was merely because of a triangular love affair between the deceased and the accused on the one hand and deceased and the prosecution’s 12th witness (Lim Guan Heng) on the other end which continued to persist until the death of the deceased.
“Their cataclysmic saga of a triangle love affair relationship gave rise to a ‘catch 22 situations’ which breathed a crime of passion and indeed, it finally, succumbed to despair on the dawn of Sept 29, 2011 to begin with on the late night of Sept 28, 2011 episode which incident eventually spur the motive of causing such bodily injury to the deceased which is sufficient in the ordinary course of nature to cause death.
“On the premise of the pathologist’s evidence of the nature of the injury to the chest of the deceased which resulted to her death viewed objectively indicates that the said injury on the deceased’s chest was sufficient in the ordinary course of nature to cause death; when the heart of the deceased had been pierced through, death must be the probable and natural consequence.
“Thus, the intention to cause death upon an objective investigation would have satisfied the requirement of Section 300(c) of the Penal Code,” held Nurchaya.
Ahmad Rizal was represented by counsel Ram Singh and Ridwandean M. Borhan, Kimberly Ye and Flavian Edward Henry.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
Daily Express Malaysia
