PUTRAJAYA: The Court of Appeal has sentenced a former police corporal to 10 years in prison for causing the death of his stepdaughter in 2015.
A three-member panel led by Justice Kamaludin Said found Khairuanuar Baharuddin guilty on a lesser charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder under Section 304 of the Penal Code.
The other judges who heard the appeal were Justices Hashim Hamzah and Azman Abdullah.
They ordered Khairuanuar to serve his 10-year jail sentence from the date of his arrest, Jan 9, 2018.
The High Court had in 2021 found him guilty of murdering Hanis Amanda Zafil on Nov 6, 2015 at a condominium in Wangsa Maju.
He was sentenced to death.
In the appeals’ court’s written judgement, Azman said the panel found that the prosecution failed to prove that the accused intended to murder his stepdaughter.
“Nothing in the facts (of the case) suggested that the accused had an intention to inflict injury to the deceased. There was certainly no evidence of premeditation or malice towards the deceased,” he added.
A total of 15 witnesses testified for the prosecution, including Hanis’ mother, who is also Khairuanuar’s wife.
During the trial, the court heard that Hanis’ biological father and stepmother found bruises on her body sometime in November 2015.
Hanis’ father testified that she had told him that she felt pain and it was “Papa Bi” (Khairuanuar) who caused the bruises.
On Nov 8, 2015, Khairuanuar’s friend, who stayed at his house, had heard a girl screaming. The friend affirmed that it was Hanis’ voice.
Later that day, the friend said Khairuanuar called on him anxiously while he was in the kitchen. The friend went to Khairuanuar’s room and saw Hanis lying on the floor with her face and lips seemingly blue.