A three-member bench chaired by Justice Che Ruzima Ghazali sentenced M Gunasegaran to 35 years’ jail and 15 strokes of the rotan.
Since last year, judges have been given discretion to impose jail terms of between 30 and 40 years for murder, in lieu of the death sentence.
The 42-year-old man’s jail term will commence from Feb 5, 2018, when he surrendered to the police hours after committing the crime.
Che Ruzima, who sat with Justices Ahmad Zaidi Ibrahim and Azizul Azmi Adnan, said there was no merit to Gunasegaran’s appeal against his conviction.
“We are unanimous that the trial judge made a correct finding in law and fact. The conviction is safe,” he said.
Che Ruzima said Gunasegaran had also failed in proving that the act was committed due to grave and sudden provocation.
However, he said the bench was substituting the death sentence imposed by the High Court in 2021 after taking into account mitigating factors.
Gunasegaran committed the offence against D Tharani in a car at the car park of the Giant supermarket in Kota Damansara at 1.50pm on Feb 5, 2018.
She was a clerk at a place which had also employed the appellant.
Lawyer Arik Zakri Abdul Kadir today submitted that the couple was in a relationship for three months before the incident.
“He lost control of himself when he was told she was going to get married to another man,” he said.
Arik also proposed a minimum jail term of 30 years if the bench decided to commute the death penalty to a jail term.
Deputy public prosecutor Khushairy Ibrahim submitted that it was a premeditated crime as Gunasegasran had earlier purchased a knife from a convenience store.
“There were also text messages between the two indicating that it was a relationship that had gone sour,” he said.
Khushairy said no, or less, weight should be given to the appellant’s statement read from the dock.
He said the appellant was responsible for the two stab wounds on the deceased’s neck that caused her death.
The facts of the case revealed the appellant had driven the car with the body from the crime scene to the Damansara police station to surrender himself.