BANGKOK (AP) – Thailand’s Supreme Court upheld a death sentence for an ex-elementary school principal convicted of killing three people, including a toddler, during an armed gold shop robbery in 2020.
The court ruled on Wednesday that Prasitthichai Khaewkao did not deserve a reduction in his original sentence, calling the shooting in a shopping mall in Lopburi province “outrageously, ruthlessly inhuman” in a statement released yesterday.
Four people were injured in the attack and a salesclerk, a security guard and a two-year-old boy were killed. Prasitthichai was found guilty in August 2020 and given a death sentence on charges including first-degree murder, killing in commission of another crime and illegally carrying a gun. The Appeal Court also upheld the death penalty in 2021.
The Supreme Court said the defendant, as a teacher and a headmaster, should have behaved as a good role model for students, but instead committed a serious crime.
Therefore, it said there was not enough grounds to grant his appeal for a sentence reduction.
One video showed a man dressed in a black ski mask and camouflage trousers, with a backpack across his chest, carrying a pistol with a silencer as he entered the Robinson Lopburi mall.
Another camera at the gold shop showed the man firing his pistol, and the toddler, who had been walking hand-in-hand with an adult, suddenly falling to the ground. The man grabbed a number of gold necklaces before fleeing.
