Photo shows the Sibu Court Complex. – Photo by Jane Moh
SIBU (Sept 7): A 48-year-old man was sentenced to three years in jail by the Sessions Court here yesterday for the attempted murder of a Pan Borneo Highway project supervisor last year.
Judge Marutin Pagan handed down the sentence after Tie Teck Ming, from Sungai Paradom, pleaded guilty to the charge framed under Section 307(1) of the Penal Code, read together with Section 34 of the same Code.
The judge also ordered for Tie’s jail sentence to run from yesterday. The accused was unrepresented.
Tie, and his two brothers, were accused of shooting Collin Hii Keng Ming, 38, using a shotgun, on March 15 last year, between 5.04pm and 5.06pm at Cafe Selalo at Paradom here.
His brothers are still at large.
According to facts of the case, Hii was fishing with his two friends at Cafe Selalo when Tie arrived at the premises at 4.20pm and was being noisy.
Hii then asked him not to disturb them and told him to leave – the latter left, but returned shortly after and approached Hii before suddenly punching him in the face.
Hii’s friends managed to stop the brawl.
However, as Tie was about to leave the place, Hii took a stick from his car and hit Tie, causing the latter to run away and hide inside an empty house.
At around 5pm, as Hii and his friends were about to leave, Tie returned to the café with his three brothers on board two four-wheel-drive (4WD) vehicles.
Tie then got off and broke the windscreen of Hii’s car using a machete.
Hii was about to reverse his car to escape when a shot was fired at the vehicle, followed by another a few moments later.
Nonetheless, Hii managed to drive away, heading straight to a private medical centre for treatment – he was later transferred to Sibu Hospital.
Police investigation found that Tie had gone home after Hii had struck him with a stick and related the incident to his brothers.
It is recorded that upon approaching Hii later that day, Tie had brought along a machete, while his brothers each carried a shotgun.
The incident was recorded by the closed-circuit television (CCTV) camera at the café.
A doctor who treated Hii had confirmed that the man sustained gunshot injuries, where pellet fragments were found embedded in his face, neck, shoulder and hands.