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SINGAPORE: A man who was among seven people charged with murdering a 31-year-old man in Orchard Towers received a conditional warning Thursday (October 15) for a reduced charge of association with a person who possessed an offensive weapon.
According to the conditional warning, Chan Jia Xing, 27, must refrain from any criminal conduct for one year. If you commit an offense within this period, you may be prosecuted again for the association charge, as well as the new offense.
A conditional warning does not amount to a conviction or a finding of guilt, and it does not leave a criminal record. This means that Chan faces no further developments in the case if he remains crime free for the next year.
READ: Orchard Towers Death: Three Suspect Murder Charges Dropped
Chan, who was defended by Invictus Law advisers Josephus Tan, Cory Wong and Shane Yeo, had the murder charge dropped in July last year.
Five other co-defendants in the case also had murder charges dropped. Only one person, Tan Sen Yang, faces the capital charge.
Tan is also accused of having a folding karambit knife, a small curved knife that looks like a claw, on the day of the incident on July 2 of last year.
The victim, Satheesh Noel Gobidass, died of a stab wound to the neck after a fight that morning.
He had come down the escalator at Orchard Towers after a fight broke out and fell between the defendant’s group and another group of people at the entrance to the Naughty Girl Club. A second fight broke out between the victim and the group of defendants.
The victim was punched and cut during the fight, and collapsed shortly after the attackers left.
Speaking to the media outside the state courts after the hearing, Chan thanked his lawyers and said he felt concerned before the day’s hearing.
When asked about having to stay crime free for a year, Chan said, “I will definitely do it. For the rest of my life.”
His attorney Josephus Tan said he and his team are grateful to the Attorney General’s Office “for making the right decision.”
“It has been an arduous journey for him. Now he is happily looking forward to the birth of his firstborn next month instead of having to spend time in prison for this unfortunate tragedy,” Tan said.
The incident comes after the only woman in the case, 24-year-old Natalie Siow Yu Zhen, was sentenced to five months in prison for misdemeanors last week.
READ: Woman originally charged with murder in Orchard Towers case receives 5 months in jail for degraded crimes
Co-defendant Joel Tan Yun Sheng received four weeks in jail on charges similar to Siow’s, while Ang Da Yuan received eight months in jail and six strokes of the cane. The other cases are pending.
