Justice Noor Hayati Mat handed down the sentence to Zhu Jia Hong, ruling that he failed to raise a reasonable doubt in his defence.

The court also ordered him to serve his jail sentence from the date of his arrest on July 6, 2019.

According to the facts of the case, Zhu quarrelled with his supervisor, Zhao Changxiang, over unpaid salaries on the night of July 6 at the hostel site office in Forest City, Iskandar Puteri.

His colleagues testified that they only saw Zhu with a knife in his hand before he fled the scene. None of them witnessed him stabbing Zhao.

Forensic pathologist Dr Zubair Abdul Razak, who conducted the post-mortem, said Zhao had 23 injury marks on his body including a stab wound in his chest that caused massive bleeding, leading to his death.

Justice Hayati said Zhu failed to justify that he had acted in self-defence when Zhao purportedly attacked him during the argument.

“The evidence does not support the conclusion that the accused acted within the lawful limits of private defence.

“The medical report shows that the deceased sustained 23 injuries, including a deep stab wound in the chest that penetrated the heart.

“The number of injuries inflicted on the deceased demonstrates that the force used by the accused was excessive and far beyond what would have been necessary to defend himself,” she added.

The court spared Zhu the death penalty on grounds that the murder was not premeditated, adding that it arose from a sudden quarrel which escalated into a struggle and involved a knife that happened to be in possession.

“While the consequences were grave, the manner in which the offence occurred does not fall within the category of cases that would warrant the court to impose the death penalty,” Hayati said.